Northwest
Interagency Coordination Center—Portland, OR
The Northwest
Interagency Coordination Center serves as the northwest area geographic focal
point to provide logistical support and intelligence relative to anticipated
and ongoing wildfire activity for all federal and cooperating state wildland
fire suppression agencies. The Center
facilitates movement of resources between agencies’ units and, concurrently,
ensures fire suppression capabilities to support large fire potential by
monitoring weather and prescribed burning activity within the area. The Center also responds to requests for
support to other geographic areas from the National Interagency Coordination
Center. Though the Center was primarily
established to support wildland fire suppression efforts, it also plays a
significant role in providing logistical support to the needs of other natural
disasters such as earthquakes, floods, volcano eruptions, etc. The Center is the focal point in the
Northwest for area level support to Emergency Support Function No. 4 in a
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) declared disaster. In addition, the Center supports the general
fire community through training, workshops and response to projects or tasks
assigned by the Pacific Northwest Wildfire Coordination Group or others.
The Pacific Northwest Wildfire Coordinating Group (PNWCG) is established to provide a coordinated interagency approach to wildfire management in Oregon and Washington. The PNWCG is composed of USDA Forest Service; USDI Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service; Oregon Department of Forestry, Washington Department of Natural Resources, Washington Association of Fire Chiefs, and The Oregon Fire Chiefs Association.
The Northwest Multi-Agency Coordinating Group (NW MAC) is comprised of the same agencies as the PNWCG and works to provide adequate firefighting resources to meet current and anticipated needs, and decides where to allocate resources most effectively during periods of shortages.
National
Interagency Coordination Center - Boise, ID
The National Interagency
Coordination Center (NICC) based in Boise, Idaho, is the focal point for
overseeing all interagency coordination activities throughout the United States.
Wildfire suppression is
built on a three-tiered system of support – the local area, one of the 11
geographic areas (including the Northwest Coordination Center in Portland,
Oregon), and finally, the national level.
When a fire is reported, the local agency and its firefighting partners
respond. If the fire continues to grow,
the agency can ask for help from its geographic area. When a geographic area has exhausted all its
resources, it can turn to NIFC at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC)
for help in locating what is needed, from air tankers to radios to firefighting
crews to incident management teams.
