Burning IssuesFall 2017

We would like to recognize and welcome two new members of our NIFC community. Julie Fadden and Brenda Caetano are our new morning and afternoon receptionists, respectively. Their responsibilities include managing NIFC merchandise inventory and sales, answering and directing phone inquiries and visiting personnel, and acting as the first impression of NIFC.

Julie Fadden’s journey to NIFC began in 1996 when she moved from California to the Treasure Valley to raise her family. She worked for personal injury lawyers in California for 23 years before adding another two years of experience in Idaho. She then decided to make the switch to real estate. She worked for the personal injury attorneys by day and attended real estate school by night spending the next 10 years building and operating a successful Treasure Valley real estate business. After the housing crisis in 2008, Julie accepted a position as a receptionist for ITT Technical Institute where she worked for four years until it’s closing in 2016. Three months later she was contracted for her current position at NIFC through Sundance Consulting. She loves the environment at NIFC and is grateful for how understanding and helpful everyone is. Her hobbies include baking, reading, and babysitting her grandchildren and is looking forward to another grandchild in two months! Welcome Julie!

Brenda Caetano was self-employed for 20 years with 10 of those years spent successfully owning and operating a women’s fitness center in California. In 2011, she sold her business and moved to Idaho with her granddaughter. She started at her current position in April and loves the environment and the people. Her son works for the Forest Service as a Contracting Officer and they share a love for Idaho. Her passions include beekeeping, with three hives at her home, and producing by-products of beekeeping such as; herbal remedies, salves, tinctures, and balms. She also makes “Comfort Cozie’s which she sells to friends, families, and other Idahoans at the Eagle Market. Seasonally, she volunteers for the community garden! Welcome Brenda!

NIFC Welcomes Two New Receptionists

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Many Happy Returns: NIFC operation rapidly refurbishes tools and equipment for firefighters

There is no doubt that fighting wildfires costs money. In recent years, federal fire suppression costs have reached in the hundreds of millions, much of it spent on suppressing flames that can burn for months at a time. Longer, hotter summers, less snow and rainfall, invasive weeds, beetle-killed trees, and human development are greatly complicating and increasing our fire seasons. Climate specialists predict that we will continue to see longer fire seasons with more intense, extreme fire activity, which, in most cases, means that federal agencies will have to spend even more money on fire suppression in the years to come.

Although fire suppression is an expensive endeavor, there are way in which federal agencies can recover some of their costs. One of the most lucrative money makers – or more accurately, money savers - in the world of wildfire is the National Interagency Fire Center’s (NIFC) Returns Warehouse, located in Boise, Idaho.

While “warehouse” indicates a place to store supplies, the NIFC Returns Warehouse is so much more, it is the operational center is responsible for inspection, cleaning,

repair, and packaging of all firefighting equipment supporting wildland fire operations across the Great Basin. Their mission is to clean, refurbish, and repair fire equipment returned from incidents as quickly as possible in order to restock and prepare the Great Basin Cache for future incidents.

The Great Basin Cache (GBK), also located at NIFC, is responsible for issuing $60 million worth of inventory, which is sent to numerous incidents throughout the fire season. Of that $60 million, the Returns Warehouse will process an average of $53 million in inventory to be restocked at the GBK. Of the thousands of items ordered from the GBK, approximately 80% are returned to the warehouse, cleaned, inspected, and restocked for reuse.

After returned items are cleaned and inspected, warehouse personnel determine whether each item is fit for reuse, or must be recycled or surplused. Each item must meet certain standards that all returns warehouses and caches comply with, prior to being returned to inventory for continued use.

Gabriel Gable sharpens a Pulaski that was returned from a fire, in order to be cycled back into inventory for use on a future fire.

Jason Tillbrook inspects and washes a large water tank, commonly referred to as a pumpkin, to ensure the continued

reliability of the container for future use on fires.

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As of late August this year, the Returns Warehouse has processed 745,000 feet (141 miles) of hose, saving almost $980,000 in taxpayer money. Additional statistics include the cleaning and reuse of 5,733 Nomex pants, saving over $658,000; the cleaning and reuse of 3,988 Nomex shirts, saving over $454,000; the cleaning and reuse of 3,391 sleeping bags, saving almost $127,000; and the refurbishment of 4,205 firefighting tools, saving almost $298,000.

In addition to restoring firefighting related items for reuse, the Returns Warehouse also assembles 39 different supply kits containing all items necessary for basic firefighting operations. Assembled supply kits include first aid, coffee heating and making, chainsaws, Mark III Pump kits, smokejumper kits, and incident command operations kits, among many others. These kits play an integral role during firefighting operations in that they supply all necessary items to fire personnel, rather than requiring personnel to piece together essential items required to carry out operations.

The Returns Warehouse remains busy throughout the year, continuing to inspect, clean, refurbish, and surplus items from the end of each fire season. During peak fire season,

approximately 45 full time employees will work to keep the Great Basin Cache stocked and ready to go for any incident requiring essential incident supplies.

The Returns Warehouse plays an integral part in wildland firefighting by guaranteeing gear and other equipment is clean and ready for reuse, as well as ensuring continued cost savings and recovery for federal agencies across the country.

Used equipment is piled and organized from a small section of the Milli Fire, near Sisters, Oregon. The used

equipment will be sent to the Returns Warehouse for inspection, cleaning, repair, and repackaging.

Fire hoses are hung to dry after being washed at the Returns Warehouse at the National Interagency Fire Center. Each hoseline has been inspected for deficiencies and defectiveness prior to washing, drying, and being returned as part of inventory.

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Gaining “Lessons in Leadership” through Women and Leadership Conference

"The keynote speakers inspired me. I left the conference with a renewed sense of confidence and energy along with an itching to raise my hand more for opportunities, even when it is a stretch assignment." So stated one participant who attended the annual Women and Leadership Conference hosted by the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University at the end of September 2017.

This was the fifth year that the conference took place and the fourth year in which National Park Service employees participated. What made this year different was that the National Park Service Division of Fire and Aviation co-sponsored the conference and brought seventeen women and men as scholarship recipients to attend the conference from the field, regional, and national levels of the National Park Service. All scholarship recipients were either full-time or collateral duty in the fields of aviation, structural fire, or wildland fire. Scholarship participants not only attended the two-day conference, but also participated in sessions before and after the conference that focused on inclusion and diversity discussions in the fields of fire and aviation. The session prior to the conference focused specifically on the National Park Service, while a Friday optional session included meeting with interagency partners in the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

This year was especially poignant for attendees and the Andrus Center, as former Idaho Governor and former

Secretary of the Interior, as well as namesake for the Andrus Center for Public Policy, Cecil Andrus, passed away a little over a month before the conference. He had been very influential in creating the conference and spoke at it the previous four years.

National Park Service participants at the 2017 Women and Leadership Conference came from the park, regional, and national levels.

Sponsorship of the conference included the opportunity to advertise in the conference program.

Continued on page 5.

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Gaining “Lessons in Leadership” (continued)

Participants heard excellent keynote addresses from women who were "LOUD, PROUD, AND PASSIONATE," as well as those who seized prospects that might have been a stretch, but instead led to further opportunities. The speakers had travelled many different paths to get to where they were today. A National Park Service participant commented on how touched she was by a story shared by Meredith Walker of Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls about meeting a Syrian refugee who had little, but shared her most prized possession, a star necklace, that Ms. Walker still wears. "The connection for me was how we can have a positive impact on those around us by sharing of ourselves and helping one another. We might not even know who has been helped by a kind word or simply encouragement."

The conference also featured networking, which allowed National Park Service employees to visit with other conference participants about the bureau, and skill builders to learn about being at one’s personal as well as professional best. Topics ranged from interview skills to caregiving, to having your best day at work, and more. The feedback about the conference was very positive, but the highlight for many of the scholarship participants was the opportunity to sit in a circle with National Park Service colleagues and share their experiences with one another. The group has continued to stay in touch with one another and look forward to working together on details, assignments, or simply reaching out with a word of encouragement.

The Boise BLM Smokejumpers attended the Idaho National Guard Gowen Thunder Airshow October 14-15 in Boise. Two smokejumpers, Curran Foley and Joe Owen, were stationed on the runway with the BLM owned Twin Otter DHC-6, as well as the mannequin “Skeebo,” used to demonstrate what a smokejumper looks like when fully suited up for a jump to a fire. Visitors who talked to Foley and Owen learned about wildland firefighting techniques, career opportunities within the BLM, and smokejumping. Additionally, airshow attendees were able to get up close and personal with the Twin Otter, visualizing firsthand what it would be like to fly to a fire as a smokejumper.

The Gowen Thunder Airshow was open to the public on Saturday, October 14, and Sunday, October 15. An estimated 117,000 people from around the Boise area attended the event. The Idaho National Guard began planning for the event in April 2016. The event was a multi-agency effort between dozens of state, federal, and private entities, including the Boise Police Department, Boise Fire Department, Boise Airport, Federal Aviation Administration, and Mountain Home Air Force Base. The last airshow hosted at Gowen Field in Boise was in 1996.

Smokejumpers attend the Gowen Thunder Airshow

Aerial performers for this year’s event included acrobats by a Curtiss P-40N and P-40E, and P-51C Mustang, as part of the Warhawk Air Museum collection; a Warbird demo including a Lockheed T-33; a F-15E Strike Eagle flyby; Canadian Forces Snowbirds; a MXS-R aerobatic demonstration; a hang glider act; a warbird flight; an A-10 Heritage Flight Team performance; a P-51 D Mustang flight; and the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds.

In addition to touring the smokejumper Twin Otter, attendees to the show were provided an up close look at two McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagles, C-130, F-16, F-35, A-10, MRAP, Abrams Tanks, Bradly fighting vehicle, Paladin, Blackhawk, Humvee, Lakota LH-72, LMTV transport vehicle, T-33 Cessna Citation, King Air, P-51, and a variety of backcountry aircraft.