California State Fire and Rescue Mutual Aid System

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Presentation for IAFC National Fire Service
Mutual Aid System Task Force on the California
Fire Rescue Mutual Aid System By CALCHIEFS
President Mike Warren
California Governors Office of Emergency
Services Kim Zagaris State Fire and Rescue
Chief
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Two Primary California AgreementsTrue Mutual Aid
vs Assistance-by-hire

• Master Mutual Aid Agreement
• Voluntary Mutual Aid
• Obligatory Mutual Aid
• California Fire Assistance Agreement
• Voluntary Mutual Aid period
• Converts to Assistance by Hire

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Basic Tenets of the Plan

• Self-Help
• Mutual Aid

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Self-Help

• The Responsible Agency will reasonably exhaust
  local resources before requesting Mutual Aid.
• This should not preclude requesting Mutual Aid
  early, when it is apparent the incident will
  likely exceed local resource capability.

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Self-Help

• Fire and Rescue officials must preplan emergency
  operations to ensure efficient utilization of
  available resources. These preplans may include
• Mutual Threat Zone Planning
• Automatic Aid Agreements
• Plans for utilization of other locally available
  resources, both public and private

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Mutual Aid

• No community has resources sufficient to cope
  with any and all major emergencies for which
  potential exists.
• No party shall be required to unreasonably
  deplete its own resources in furnishing mutual
  aid.

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Mutual Aid

• Enabling Legislation
• Tort Liability
• Discretionary Immunity
• Comfort to Locally Elected Officials
• Worker Comp
• No cost to participate
• Reimbursement under most circumstances

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Mutual Aid

• The responsible local official in whose
  jurisdiction an incident has occurred shall
  remain in charge at such an incident.
• Agencies receiving mutual aid are responsible for
  logistical support to all mutual aid personnel
  and equipment received.

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Plan Limitations

• Must be supplemented by more detailed plans at
  the local, operational area, and regional levels
• Truly fulfilling the incidents resource requests
  requires ongoing commitment on the part of local
  agencies to adequately train and equip their
  personnel, and respond capable apparatus.

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How the Fire Rescue Mutual Aid System Works
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Regions and Operational Areas

• 65 Operational Areas- Generally same as counties
  (exception Los Angeles County the Lake Tahoe
  Basin) Op Area Fire Rescue Coordinator is
  elected by County Fire Chiefs Association for
  three-year term
• 6 Regions - Made up of 6 to 16 op areas Region
  Fire Rescue Coordinator is elected by the Op
  Area Coordinators for three-year term
• They are responsible for maintaining,
• updating, and activating the Region
• and Op Area Plan.

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California Fire Resources Inventory System

• An annually-updated inventory of all fire and
  rescue personnel, apparatus and equipment in
  California
• Now also captures qualified Overhead personnel
  information

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California Fire Rescue Mutual Aid System
Resources

• Equipment
• Engines, Trucks, EMS Units, Haz Mat Units, USR
  Fire Boats, Swift Water Rescue Units, Air
  Lighting Units, Portable Pumps, Bulldozers, Air
  Craft,
• Personnel
• Incident Command Teams
• Incident Overhead
• (ICS Qualified and Specialized)

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California Fire Rescue Mutual Aid System
Resources
3556 Type I Engines 882 Type II Engines 1243
Type III Engines 306 Type IV Engines 5987
Total Engines California can mobilize 20 to 25
of there resources at anytime which is 200 250
Strike Teams/Task Forces
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California Fire Rescue Mutual Aid System
Resources
314 Type I ALS Medical Non Transport
353 Type II BLS Medical Non Transport 464
Type I ALS Medical Transport 88 Type II
BLS Medical Transport 10114 EMT I 791 EMT
II 4898 Paramedics There are 2600 Ambulance
in California both Public and Private 27 of
those are fire based
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California Fire Rescue Mutual Aid System
Resources
114 Type I Haz-Mat Teams 30 Type II
Haz-Mat Teams 30 Teams are Industrial Brigade
(IB), Military Fire Dept (MFD), College Campus
(CC), State Resource (SR), Federal Resource (FR).
1743 Haz-Mat Technician 1415 Haz-Mat Specialist
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California State OES Resources

• 110 OES Engines
• 12 Water Tenders
• 6 OES Communication Units
• 10 OES Swift Water Caches
• 8 USR Task Forces (Local/State/Federal)

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California Fire Assistance Agreement

• Actual Cost Reimbursement or Minimum Base
  Rate
• 12-hour Free Period
• Standard Staffing (ICS Typing)
• FEMA Equipment Rates

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Interstate Civil Defense and Disaster Compact
(Created in 1950)

• Sub-Agreement to provide interstate assistance
  between the California and five western states
• Arizona
• California
• Idaho
• Nevada
• Oregon
• Washington

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Emergency Management Assistance Compact (Created
in 1992)

• AB-832 Chaptered September 13, 2005
• - Sunsets March 1, 2007

EMAC is administered by the National Emergency
Management Association (NEMA)
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Some Differences between ICDDC and EMAC

• ICDDC
• No disaster required
• International
  agreements possible
• Tort liability under sending states laws

• EMAC
• Disaster declaration required
• No provision for international aid
• Tort liability under receiving states laws

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California OES has Multi-Agency Coordination
Experience
Southern California Fire Siege - 739,597 acres
burned - 3631 homes destroyed - 24 Lives Lost
including 1 Firefighter - 1160 Local Govt.
Engines Mobilized Northridge Earthquake - 57
killed 9,158 injured - 20 billion damage LA
Civil Unrest - 53 killed 2,383 injured - 469
million damage East Bay Hills Fire - 25 Killed -
Destroyed 3,000 dwellings
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Incident Response Coordination

• OES Tasking State Agencies California National
  Guard MAFFS Program and Helicopters

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Incident Response Coordination

• Local Government Aviation Support

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Old Topanaga Fire 1993 180 Strike Team of Engines
Committed within 24 hours Incident Base Stagging
Area
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Oakland Hills Fire 1991 88 Strike Team of Engines
Committed within 16 hours This is 36 Strike
Teams for morning Shift
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Out of State Responses for 2002

• OES deployed engine strike teams and overhead to
  the following States
• - Arizona - Nevada
• - California - Oregon
• - Colorado - South Dakota
• Idaho - Washington
• New Mexico - Wyoming
• - Montana

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2003 Southern California Resources Mobilized

• Over 15,000 personnel
• 240 Engine Strike Teams Task Forces
• 1,160 Local Government Fire Engines
• 306 CDF Fire Engines
• 102 OES Fire Engines
• 5 OES Water Tenders
• 190 Federal Fire Engines
• 120 Out of State Engines
• 50 engines from Arizona, Nevada and 20 from
  Oregon
• 43 Air Tankers
• 105 Helicopters

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Questions?
Thank You