Team and Single Resource Assignments

The FireCenter is comprised of a group of highly skilled individuals possessing a combination of wildland fire qualifications and technical expertise. Many FireCenter staff members have an extensive wildland fire background and continue to be active in firefighting. Other staff members became red-card qualified through their work here. Most of the staff are active on current fires, either through individual resource assignments or assignments with the FireCenter's Fire Intelligence Module, and all staff members have passed the arduous work capacity test and hold current red cards.

Staff from the FireCenter have engaged in active, on-the-ground support of a number of wildland fire and wildland fire use events for over a decade.  While on fire assignments, FireCenter researchers examine the relevance and efficacy of research ideas and activities. FireCenter staff have served as: incident commanders, fire effects monitors, field observers, firing bosses, and GIS Specialists on wildland fire modules. Other details hace included initial attack dispatch, fire behavior analyst mentees, infrared interpreters, logistics staff, adn GIS and computer specialists on incident management teams. Activities undertaken to support these incidents include infrared mapping of fire locations, fire and fuels behavior modeling, internet communications support, computer mapping, post-fire severity assessments, and digital database development for data maintenance and archiving.

Fire season work, through individual resource assignments and the Fire Intelligence Module deployments, helps direct our work to be relevant to our partners in fire and land management. Fire assignments allow the staff to learn more about fire management and observe how and why technology can benefit on-the-ground operations.