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National Resource Deployment
The Florida Division of Forestry
is the agency responsible for coordinating resource deployments (for non-federal agencies) from Florida to national wildland
fire and emergency incidents. This responsibility is
established through the Cooperative Fire Protection
agreement between the Division of Forestry and
the United States Department of Agriculture - Forest
Service.
It is the intent of the Division
to allow out-of-state resource deployments only
after the potential for an emergency response in
Florida is assessed and it is determined that there
are adequate resources to meet both potential in-state
emergency response needs and the out-of-state deployment.
The Division will also rotate personnel in assignments
to give as many individuals as possible an opportunity
to be dispatched to maintain currency and/or be
trained in Incident Command System positions.
Qualifications
To be dispatched, individuals need to be qualified
for the position which they are resource ordered,
have their absence approved by their immediate
supervisor and agency for the duration of the
assignment, and make themselves "available" for
dispatch via appropriate channels. Usually personnel
dispatched for the first time to a Federal assignment
will go as a trainee working under a fully qualified
and trained person.
As an National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) member agency, the Division of Forestry
follows the National Wildland and Prescribed
Fire Qualification System Guide for minimum qualifications
for each position.
Red Card Qualification training for cooperators
can be obtained through the local Division of
Forestry, at the Division's Center for
Wildfire and Forest Resource Management Training,
through the FFCA under contract with the Division
of Forestry, funded by a training grant or through
trained and qualified NWCG instructors under
agreement with the Division.
Deployment Availability and Deployment
The resource ordering system is a national system
that identifies specific resource needs and uses "availability
lists" at the state, regional and national
levels to fill the resource needs.
The Florida Division of Forestry accepts "availability
lists" from both Division and cooperator
personnel for wildfire and other emergency incident
deployments nationally. Each Forestry District/Center
office compiles this information for all cooperators
within their geographic area of responsibility.
These "availability lists" are forwarded
by the Division's field units to the State
Officer-In-Charge in the Forest Protection Bureau.
Staff members in the Bureau input this data in
the Resource Ordering Status System, ROSS, a
national resource status system overseen by the
National Interagency Coordination Center in Boise,
ID.
Please note that a person's "availability" should
include a beginning and ending date. Being "available" means
the person is ready, willing and able to be dispatched
upon notice anytime between the beginning date
and ending date of their availability period. It
is important that those who make themselves available
are actually available for a 14-day deployment.
Therefore, a person should be available for dispatch
on the last day of the "availability period" and
be gone for a 16-day assignment (including travel).
This information will be posted in the Resource
Status Ordering System (ROSS). Resources will be
ordered using this system based on availability
and the position requested. All resources qualified
for fireline duty should have completed a "fireline
safety" refresher session within the past
year.
The Division maintains two sets of
availability lists, one for "overhead" personnel
and one for "crew" personnel. Personnel
will be dispatched according to their approved
Incident Command System (NWCG) qualifications as
listed on their Incident Qualification (Red) Cards.
If a person is qualified for more than one position
it is very possible that they will be requested
for dispatch based on the position that is needed
the most and not necessarily for the position they
prefer.
Incident Qualification Cards will be updated
once annually during January/February of each
year. The work capacity test or pack test is
required for most positions and is also completed
in the winter months each year. Incident qualification
information can, however, be entered into the
person's record at any time during the
year through the Districts/Centers as time permits.
Cooperator personnel are always dispatched as
casual hires under the Federal Administratively
Determined (AD) Pay Plan. This means they are
paid by the Federal government and must be approved
for a leave of absence from their normal work
duties for the duration of the assignment. Typical
assignments will be two weeks in length with
a day of travel on each end of the assignment
for mobilization and demobilization, making a
normal total of 16 days. Hiring paperwork will
be required to be completed (i.e., W-4, I-9 and
AD Hire Form) prior to deployment. All paperwork
will be processed through the Florida Interagency
Coordination Center.
Once orders are filled the Forest Protection
Bureau staff will contact the selected person(s)
for deployment through the appropriate District/Center
office. Confirmation is needed immediately (within
one hour) as well as a proposed date and time
of departure. The Florida Interagency Coordination
Center will then prepare the necessary travel
arrangements along with an itinerary which will
be forwarded to the selected person(s). Persons
should travel to the incident with the appropriate
tools and PPE to perform the assigned duties.
Contact Us
- Mike Coker, Fire Standards Administrator
Florida Division of Forestry
Forest Protection Bureau
3125 Conner Blvd.
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1650
Telephone: 850/ 487-8254
Email: cokerm@doacs.state.fl.us
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