Nationalize Wildland Firefighting
Wildfires are out of control. 

Are you aware that most fire departments across the Country rely on donations, fund raisers and grants, to purchase equipment?  Various departments use different firefighting tactics, and have different aircraft dispatch priorities to fight fire. This is not right!  Have you ever seen a fund raising event for the United States Coastguard?  Of course not! We need a unified federal standard for tactics, Strategies, and single budget for wildland firefighting. 

Fire ecologists have shown that a slight increase in temperature has produced 4 times as many fires during the last decade, and those fires have been of greater intensity than previous ones.  This trend may not change during the next several decades.

The United States Forest Service spends about 1.5 billion dollars annually on firefighting. The Forest Service is only one of hundreds of organizations with budgets and responsibilities for controlling fires.  A few of the major organizations include the Bureau of Land Management in the Department of the Interior, The Department of Homeland Security, Fish and Game, the Bureau Of Indian Affairs and hundreds of state, city, and county organizations across the country.

There are many hidden costs to fire loss.  Estimates for these costs run from six to eight billion dollars annually.  These hidden costs include things, such as loss of infrastructure, insurance, businesses, and health care to those who suffer with respiratory problems.  The most significant loss which is seldom mentioned is the displacement of families after their homes have been lost to a wildland fire.  Firefighters have been known to give children toys as their hearts went out to these families.

Forest and other wildland fires do not know city, county or state boundaries!  Over 100 years ago organizations were formed by all of these entities to fight fire.  All these organizations continue today to work independently. Within the last few years many improvements have been made to coordinate their efforts.  Unfortunately there are many examples of the failure of these efforts.  There are a many discrepancies between the agencies as to the tactics to use during a wildland fires.  Fire management teams can be rotated to different areas of the country.  Teams from the Everglades in Florida for example may be called to a forest fire in Montana.  This may be wrong tactics!

Shortly after the turn of this century a C130 Hercules aircraft suffered a catastrophic failure in the structure of the wing.  This accident occurred in walker California.  The aircraft was built during the 1950s and was operated by a private contract company to fight fire.  After this incident the United States Forest Service grounded and ultimately eliminated more than half of the large firefighting aircraft.  These large Airtankers have never been replaced.  The Forest Service currently has 17 or 18 of these aircraft left to serve the entire country.   The United States Forest service under the department of agriculture has been putting up barriers to the development of large Airtankers since this incident.

What is needed to impact positive change for the future of wildland firefighting?

The basic constitutional principle that duties not specifically granted to the federal government are reserved by the states should be changed for firefighting.  We propose to educate Politian’s that congress enact legislation which specifically grants wildland firefighting responsibilities to the federal government. 

This change will create an environment which will allow the formation of a new firefighting administration.

This organization could be called the "United States Wildland Fire & Rescue Administration"

A retired firefighter from Los Angeles, Dennis Robinson has started a nonprofit group dedicated to improve wildland firefighting.  Wildfire Tactics & Atmospheric Research Institute is focused on achieving these goals.  We intend to contact firefighting professionals, fire ecologists, and political leaders with the goal of bringing together a more powerful and better organized federal  firefighting force.

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