Wildfire management Results of operations
During the deployments to both incidents, 12 WTAs from Northumberland, Lancashire, South Wales, Hereford and Worcester, Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire, and Merseyside FRSs, and DFRMO, provided support to the incident command teams. Maintaining the continuous attendance of WTAs and responding to all formal requests made to the NRFC was challenging, due to the capability being ‘best endeavours’, and it would have been impossible without the support of principal officers in the FRS providing their WTA personnel. As the WTA capability was mobilised in
advance of the formal launch and notification to UK FRS (this happened via NFCC on 28 June), there was undoubtedly an element of uncertainty about what the WTAs could offer in terms of incident support and incident advice and guidance. Pleasingly, the feedback from GMFRS and LFRS has been very supportive and positive, and has provided vindication as to the requirement and usefulness of the capability. The success of the defensive burn operations
undertaken by SWFRS has proven the concept of tactical burning to a much larger FRS audience – outside the limited number of FRSs in the UK which currently have the ability to deploy it as a defensive or offensive wildfire tactic. NFCC Wildfire Group is hopeful that this attracts the interest of other FRSs to better acquaint themselves with the benefits that can be provided by the use of tactical burning. From a strategic perspective, good liaison and information exchange was maintained
between the NFCC wildfire lead and NRAT duty officers, National Resilience, the NFCC and the Home Office since deployments began, but there are certainly areas to be improved upon to ensure that the resilience and robustness of the strategic support and advice can be enhanced. Whilst the first deployment of the NFCC
WTA capability has been proven to be a success, this is not the time to rest on our laurels. We know there is more to do to grow the resilience of the team, as well as finalising the maintenance of WTA competence arrangements and WTA skills development programmes, which are essential in order to build on the good start which has been made. That work has already begun with colleagues from National Resilience, NFCC, the Home Office and non FRS partners, and an open offer has also been made to all UK FRSs to brief services on the WTA capability and an offer to review and support wildfire development or gap analysis in individual services, if this is requested. The expectation is that wildfire will become
a more frequent and widespread incident type in the UK, and the NFCC Wildfire Group is committed to improving its ability to better plan, prepare and respond to that probable new normality
Paul Hedley is the chief fire officer of Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service and the National Fire Chiefs Council wildfire lead. For more information, view page 5
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www.frmjournal.com SEPTEMBER 2018
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