Wildland Fire Management

Mission

Increase and maintain wildfire resilience for the City of Flagstaff, Summit Fire & Medical District, and priority watersheds. 

Overview

We recognize the community well-being is linked to a healthy forest, so to address their dire state, we have become environmental activists. Guided by our mission to protect values at risk and by the professional resource managers of our Wildland Fire Management Program, our effort is concentrated in five core areas:

• Preparedness: A cycle of planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating, and taking corrective action to ensure effective coordination to reduce wildfire risk to the community. (Wildland fire training and certification, Wildland fire preparedness planning)
• Prevention: Actions to protect lives and property through avoidance and intervention to stop wildfires from occurring. (Wildland Urban Interface Code enforcement, FireWise Communities)
• Mitigation: Activities providing a critical foundation in the effort to reduce the loss of life and property from wildfire while creating a safer community. (Selective thinning, broadcast burning, Debris disposal)
• Response: Activities that address the short-term, direct impacts of a wildfire incident including immediate actions to save lives, protect property, and meet basic human needs. (Emergency Operations Center participation, Wildland fire response)
• Recovery: Actions taken to restore the impacts of a wildfire, evaluate incidents to identify lessons learned and the development of initiatives to minimize the impacts of future incidents. (Wildland fire After Action Reviews, Cost recovery/reimbursements)

Our Tactics (7 E's of Wildfire Community Risk Reduction) 

1. Work with partners to create & manage fire-adapted Ecosystems
2. Develop and Enforce firewise codes and ordinances
3. Engineer a fire-adapted built environment
4. Continuously improve Emergency Response based on lessons learned
5. Educate citizens on the natural role of forest fire and how to minimize smoke impacts
6. Support Economic Incentives that encourage wildfire risk reduction investments
7. Work in a way that Enables and inspires other communities to become fire adapted.