Incident Management Situation Update

The National Multi-Agency Coordination Group (NMAC) set the National Preparedness Level to 5 last week.

The NMAC establishes Preparedness Levels through the year to help assure that firefighting resources are ready to respond to new incidents. The levels are dictated by fuel and weather conditions, as well as fire activity and resource availability.

The levels range from 1 to 5 – 5 being the highest. As the levels rise, more federal and state employees become available for mobilization.

Being at Preparedness Level 5 means that national mobilization is heavily committed and measures need to be taken to support Geographic Areas. Active Geographic Areas must take emergency measures to sustain incident operations.

• Full commitment of national resources is ongoing
• Resource orders filled at NICC by specifically coordinating requests with Geographic Area Coordination Centers as resources become available
• Potential for emerging significant wildland fires is high and expected to remain high in multiple geographic areas.

The current situation report from the National Interagency Coordination Center has listed the Active Incident Resource Summary with totals as:

• ·         Fires: 104
• ·         Cumulative Acres: 815,591
• ·         Crews: 508
• ·         Engines: 879
• ·         Helicopters: 171
• ·         Total Personnel: 19,793

This year to date there have been 42,185 fires and 6,350,711 acres across the nation.

Pennsylvania currently has 2 firefighter crews consisting of 20 firefighters (each) assigned to the Minerva 5 Fire in California and 2 engine crews consisting of 4 firefighters (each) assigned to Montana. PA also has one crew listed available to assist in any further operations.

If you would like to reference the National Interagency Fire Center for more information about the Preparedness Levels or see the most current NICC Situation Report click here.