After a short break Wednesday afternoon, fire chiefs from municipal and volunteer fire departments, county, state and federal officials continued the after-action review of the 2011 fire season by discussing what actually happened this year.
Loretta Benavidez of the Las Cruces U.S. Bureau of Land Management served as facilitator.
"You can do an after-action review right after a fire or a more comprehensive one at the end of the season," she said.
"What actually happened this year?" Benavidez asked. "This is your opportunity to surface the good, bad and ugly, so we can be prepared for next season."
She pointed out that federal agencies extensively use the AAR process.
Santa Clara Mayor Richard Bauch said he had two observations first, many of this year's incidents lasted several hours. "Our department does not have enough people to rotate. I think they should have been given some rest. Second, initially there was a lot of confusion. By the end of the season, we knew what to do more quickly. Training is a big issue. What we need is a training academy. Getting new firefighters and retaining them is difficult, because it's hard for those who work to go to Socorro for two to three weeks to get certified. If we had the training here, I think it would help. All the fires worked like training sessions.'
Gary Benavidez, Grant County fire management officer, said the biggest thing that happened this year was "that we joined the ‘it happened club,' rather than continuing in the ‘this could happen club.' We need to change for the better."
Gilbert Helton of the County Office of Emergency Management said the county evacuated people and pets. "They knew where to go and where to take their pets. We were able to use cached resources. Incident command system training was provided to some, but not all. The emergency management plan came into play, and we continued to use the emergency management planning committee. Reverse 911 was put into place."
Ellen Harris, Tyrone Volunteer Fire Department chief, said "from the boots on the ground perspective, we got support from neighboring departments. Our auxiliary did a wonderful job of feeding us and others. Communications were not always done well. Radio is sometimes a problem. Firefighter fatigue is a problem, especially for the ones who are out for 10 to 12 hours. That's too long. The command got overwhelmed with too much traffic, and the incident command system didn't always work. In some fires, escape was blocked and compromised by vehicles. Orders were not always clear."
"Talking about multi-agency responses, other agencies may not be as familiar with the area," Lucy Whitmarsh, Pinos Altos Volunteer Fire and Rescue chief, said. "Sometimes, there were not good directions on how to get to a fire or the identification of the staging area. In communications, with aerial spotting, there were breakdowns in communication between what the fire is doing and the people on the ground.
"We need a unified incident command to get resources deployed for maximum response," she continued. "Volunteer firefighters might be on scene 12 to 14 hours after working all day, and then have to go back to work. Sometimes there was not access to rehab supplies or a central location for rehab supplies."
Bauch pointed out another problem with communications and dispatching vehicles. "Every department has an engine No. 1. Could we change naming protocol?"
Whitmarsh said sometimes Dispatch will identify resources, but does not dispatch them and sometimes, although a department has requested P.A. be paged out, it is not.
"We can hear the Silver City Fire Department communication saying: ‘We need the P.A. tender,' but we don't get dispatch orders."
Silver City Fire Chief Bencomo questioned whether such orders need to go through Central Dispatch.
Tony Diaz of the Lincoln National Forest served as assistant facilitator. He said follow through is needed in such a case.
Jim McCormick, U.S. Bureau of Land Management Las Cruces District assistant manager, said areas need capabilities of maps for rural VFDs. Also, they need to know which radio channel to be on.
Bencomo said no one was there from Central Dispatch to defend themselves. "I think they're undermanned."
Whitmarsh said it is also an increasing problem trying to communicate with the power department to get power turned off.
Joe Chavez, Fort Bayard VFD chief, said the situation with Dispatch is never going to be alleviated, because it can get overwhelmed with calls. "I can request, but if I don't confirm, a department might not be there. Our primary mechanism for responding is through a paging system. A lot of us work full-time. If there's a situation where we're requested, but Dispatch is overwhelmed and didn't page us, we don't get there."
Loretta Benavidez asked that the countywide Dispatch confirm protocol should be added to a list for further discussion.
Doug Boykin, New Mexico Forestry district forester, said a surge capacity is needed for Dispatch "to throw in extra bodies to help out."
County Commission Chairman Brett Kasten said Dispatch has two people there all the time and when they're busy two more can help.
"You also need someone there to take notes and make sure things get done," Boykin said.
Fernando Martinez of the Hurley VFD said, because he is new to the department, he had a question. "The county has a serialized system for law enforcement. Would that work for fire departments?"
Helton said that is Central Dispatch.
Kasten asked Gabe Holguin, Gila National Forest acting fire staff officer, if the Forest Service Dispatch communicates with Central Dispatch.
"Yes, and they have frequent meetings," Holguin replied. "This year we got severity funding, had 40 smokejumpers and more Hot Shot crews, as well as extra law enforcement who could assist.
"Communications is still an issue," Holguin continued. "We need to figure out how to work on radio to each other when we're on a fire. We respond to fires in the city or county. We can talk to our Dispatch, but not to Central Dispatch."
Helton said it needs to be two-pronged communications and coordination. "Sometimes, there is more than one incident commander hub. The Incident Commander - that's the hub. We need to solidify an emergency operating center. We will need a permanent one."
Gary Benavidez said whoever arrives first at an incident is the incident commander until a more qualified individual shows up to take over the fire.
"We need to take a serious look at this," he said. "We need the most qualified being the incident commander, and I'm not sure we're following that."
May said the Red Card system of qualification for incident management doesn't work in VFDs, "because we don't know who will be there. We do need the most qualified, and that's the first to arrive until a more qualified person shows up."
Chavez pointed out that most of the required training for his volunteers is for structure fires. "It's kind of overwhelming, because we're volunteers, but we're trying to keep up with certifications and trainings. There's nothing saying here's an added support person to keep you on track."
Loretta Benavidez said structural folks wear many hats, including EMS, structure fires and wildland fires.
"It's the complexity of the wildland-urban interface," McCormick said.
"Perhaps we need a reassessment of what is happening in the WUI, how resources are put out and how fires are being fought," Loretta Benavidez said.
Bill Crossland of the Lower Mimbres VFD said his volunteers train for wildland fires, but are funded for structure fires. "Most of us spend more time at firefighting than at our jobs. We get misled that we have to do everything. Not one size fits all."
Loretta Benavidez suggested that the departments identify who goes to structure fires and who goes to wildland fires.
Chavez said most of the VFDs fight mainly wildland fires, but are funded for structural protection. "We're expected to train for structural, but we train for wildland fire, because that's what we fight. We need an organizational structure on the county level."
Kasten asked what kind of structure.
Chavez said the departments don't concentrate on one thing. "We always have to think about the safety aspect. If people see a better county system, maybe recruitment will be better."
Bencomo said he has a deputy chief in charge of training and a deputy chief of prevention. "It's a structure."
May said something else needs to be addressed early on in fire season. "Every time anyone saw smoke, everyone got called out. Five departments were called to a smoking stump. We were stripping resources from our areas. We need a system where if a department needs mutual aid on a fire, the local VFD calls out the extra resources. We don't want an over-reaction."
Crossland pointed out that there had been too much response on three different fires.
Holguin said the Forest Service's line officers provide the incident commanders with a written list of expectations. "I would like to see the county give written instructions to the incident commander."
Mark Standard of the Santa Rita Fire Department said the volunteers need to know one another's districts better. "We have been doing cross-training with other districts and will do more."
Boykin said departments might have started out rough, but smoothed things out. "We had a year that gave us a lot of experience. Experience and training are what make it work. No injury to the public is amazing. The teamwork is amazing. We, as a group, determined which homes burned and we determined how to tell them. The repopulation of the area was smooth. From the state's perspective, I think we were successful to do a surge into Grant County."
He suggested the joint-powers agreement with the county be reviewed once a year to get rid of stuff that doesn't work.
Gary Benavidez said the county had a strong fire year, and "we're looking at another one. We have to work on what to improve. The only way to make changes to get better is to throw out more ideas. The only reason to do training is to keep people safe. We need structure to keep ourselves safe. We have to do planning to come to agreements on how to do better.
Bencomo said initially things don't come together, but "we got better as fires happened. I learned how to deal with the media. I'm going to get Bendix radios, which may help the communications issues, and we will put in for a mobile command vehicle grant."
Kasten pointed out that some private assets, including water trucks, were called in to help, but the connections weren't correct. "The rest of the world doesn't plumb 2 ½ inches, but fire trucks do. We have to make sure private contractors are ready.
Loretta Benavidez suggested perhaps modeling the Forest Service system to train contractors.
Holguin said it's a lot harder now, with the contractors having to jump through lots of hoops.
The rest of the meeting will be covered in a subsequent article.