El Fuego Soberanes

On July 22nd, near Soberanes Creek in the Garrapata State park just south of Monterey, someone decided to ignore the prohibition on campfires. After kindling their illegal fire, they then failed to put it out, and thus started the most expensive wildfire in US history.

The Operations Chief updates the camp on the
current situation at the morning briefing.

Cal Fire (our state wild land fire agency) was responsible for the initial attack, and worked for several weeks to put the fire out. during that time, 57 homes were lost, and a bull dozer operator was killed. Management of the fire transitioned to a federal incident management team after a month. That team eventually handed it off to another team (a federal team from Alaska). Then, on September 10th, I was notified that my team (California Team 4) would be taking over on the 12th.

The Incident Commander ponders the situation
as the Operations Chief (right) explains current
tactics.

The first 10 days have been interesting, and exhausting. My position, as Team Liaison Officer, is relatively new to me and therefore invigorating. The job is to be the contact between the team and local agencies and other cooperating entities that have a stake in effectively managing the fire, as in putting it out!

Leading our daily cooperators meeting is
a key part of my job.

Examples of "cooperators" are the county sheriff (evacuation and re-population), CHP (road closures and traffic control), power companies, Red Cross, local politicians, landowners, etc.

Preparing for a public meeting in the
threatened community of Arroyo Seco

So, I am their point of contact, and help them get connected with the right people on my team to achieve success. Every day I lead a working meeting of all the cooperators. The objective is to keep them informed on progress and suppression activities, and also to surface points of interaction and discuss how they can be dealt with together. Probably the biggest benefit of all is the relationships that develop as we work together to achieve mutual objectives. Ultimately, we will leave but they will be here dealing with the aftermath of the incident. Leaving having established, maintained, and improved the relationships between the local National Forest and the agencies and entities they deal with on a regular basis, indicates our ultimate success.

One of the good parts of the job is that I spend
much of my time with the Incident Commander

Sometimes, you can do a great job of fighting the fire, but ultimately it is how the locals THINK you fought the fire that counts. By being truthful, open, and engaging we are building the relationships that will continue to pay off long after we go home.

That's All!