Safe and Effective Response

Featured Fire Management Work

• The Aviation Use Summary (AUS), developed by Rocky Mountain Research Station, is a framework for a decision support system that bridges the gap between tactical aviators, incident managers, land managers, and fire leadership through near real-time mapping of actions and a structured, repeatable check-in and planning process.
• The Snag Hazard Map supports risk-informed decision making. Wildland fire managers can utilize the snag hazard map to identify potentially dangerous conditions and direct fire responders away from high-risk areas. The Snag Hazard Map is featured as part of the Risk Management Assistance (RMA) dashboard.
• The Rocky Mountain Research Station Wildfire Risk Management Science (WRMS) Team co-developed Potential Operational Delineations (PODs) to pre-plan for fire using a risk management approach, and to give land managers a formal process for developing landscape-scale wildfire response options before fires start. PODs are spatial units or containers defined by potential control features, such as roads and ridge tops, within which relevant information on forest conditions, ecology, and fire potential can be summarized.
• Characterizing where personnel and equipment are coming from, both geographically and by managing agency, may help fire managers project how to fill future resource needs. Rocky Mountain Research Station has developed a flexible framework for Forest Service regions, national forests, and Incident Management Teams to use when looking at how wildland fire response personnel and equipment have been used in the past. The framework can be updated to include data through the most recent fire season. 

Featured Firefighter Safety Work

• Rocky Mountain Research Station scientists developed a new tool, the Safe Separation Distance Evaluator, to help wildland fire personnel know if a safety zone is large enough to protect firefighters.
• WindNinja is a microscale diagnostic wind model, developed for and widely used in operational wildland fire applications both in the United States and abroad. WindNinja was developed to be used by emergency fire responders within their typical operational constraints of fast simulation times (seconds), minimal computing requirements (laptop computers), and low technical expertise.
• WildfireSAFE provides an intuitive platform to access fire weather, hazard and behavior information from the Wildland Fire Assessment System (WFAS) for specific incidents. It supports the greater interagency fire community in the planning, response, and recovery phases of wildfire management. Animated videos were developed to share WildfireSAFE with firefighters and people living in and close to the WUI.
• The Fire Weather Alert System is a mobile app designed to automatically warn on-the-ground wildland firefighters of dangerous weather conditions approaching their area and provide easy access to fire-relevant weather information. The Fire Weather Alert System monitors weather forecasts and measurements such as Remote Automatic Weather Stations, radar, and lightning, and alerts firefighters to conditions like high winds, low relative humidity, thunderstorms, and Red Flag Warnings, all based on custom weather thresholds set by the user.