Helena & Tonto national forests' firefighters enter firefighter exchange program

BY TOM STORY

In his 17 seasons fighting wildland fire, Brett Wittie, a self-described "fire junkie," has been many places and fought many fires. Wittie is currently part of a firefighter exchange program between the Helena Mont. National Forest, where he works, and the Tonto Ariz. National Forest. The program has afforded him many firefighting opportunities, and he has high praise for the people who made it possible. "I haven't been treated this good anywhere I've been," he says.

Wittie and other firefighters from the Helena National Forest were assigned to help firefighters battle fires in the Tonto National Forest, where the fire season kicks into high gear while it's still wet and cold in Montana.

Funding Issues Drive the Program
As with many federal agencies, the Tonto's funding has been cut, leaving the national forest looking for innovative ways to stretch the fire budget. In the past, when the money was abundant (especially for funding for severe fire danger), fire officials were able to shift personnel around the country as needed. Such personnel, called "detailers," worked on a detail away from their home unit, and their salary and costs were paid out of severity funds.

Now, with less money to hire seasonal fire personnel, fire officials at the Tonto took matters into their own hands. Jeff Borucki, Tonto fire management officer, implemented a program that he and Bret Ruby, Helena fire management officer, had discussed a couple years earlier.

Ruby says that, in 2003, he and Borucki spoke about a few units in Region 1 that had firefighter exchange programs in place. "Jeff [Borucki] and I talked about the possibility of putting something similar together," he says. So the two fire management officers used an agreement between the Flathead and Superior national forests as a model, and then put together the paperwork, which was signed in the spring of 2005 — just in time to send the first batch of Montana firefighters south to Arizona.

"This is different [than detailers] because we are using our regular fire budget and preparedness dollars to bring them into meet our suppression target," Borucki explains. "These [firefighters] are not in addition to what we have for the season; they are actually part of the workforce."

Borucki adds that sheer economics directed the instigation of the program. "What has driven it is the fact that, when we had lots of money, we ran 22 engines [over the entire forest], and when we had enough money, [we] maybe ran 18 [engines]," he says. "This year, we got enough [money] to run maybe nine or 10, but we still have all those engines and we still have to pay for them."

He continues, "The Washington office [headquarters of the United States Forest Service] doesn't understand that. They just think [the engines] and the folks who are assigned to them disappear."

Borucki adds that this year's budget isn't a fluke. "It's going to be this way for several years," he says.

Borucki says the cheapest way to efficiently manage what funds the forests do have is to get rid of their engines and bring in a workforce from somewhere else. "Because they're only here for a short period of time, we're not paying for the engine when we're not using it, and we're not paying for those people when they're not here. We don't have to work them through the winter."

PHOTOS TOM STORY Brett Wittie, from the Helena National Forest, uses a backpack pump to mop up the edges of the Goldfield Fire, a blaze in the Tonto National Forest in Arizona. The veteran Montana firefighter was down on the desert as part of an exchange agreement between the Tonto and Helena national forests.

A Different World
Ruby's firefighters are happy to help the Tonto folks battle the blazes, especially considering they know these firefighters will be the first to help them if Montana faces similar fires. "Later in the year, if we roll into [fire] severity, the first call will be to the Tonto," Ruby says. "Having engine crews that have worked together and know each other's capabilities gives a cohesion factor that's hard to put numbers to."

Beau Macey, an engine superintendent, was a member of the first group from Helena to come to Arizona. This group had the advantage of this year's cooler spring weather in Arizona; however, because the group was based in the Tonto's Cave Creek Ranger District, it saw some early-season action. "We were the first engine in on both the St. Clair and Bart Fires," Macey says. "For the first one we went to [the St. Clair], it was a little after four in the morning, and it was burning really, well, really active. For the other one, the Bart, it was hot and windy. It took off pretty fast. It's a lot different fuel type, that's for sure. It's a lot faster moving."

Jarel Kurtz, also an engine superintendent with Helena, adds that working in the Tonto gave them a good in briefing about fire behavior, radio protocol, landmarks, etc., in the area. "A lot of us have traveled around a bit. I had been down in Nevada, and I was used to it a little bit, but this is even different from Nevada," he says. "[The fire officials at the Tonto] were real good about helping us out. There's a lot of differences tactically. Rather than constantly direct handline that you do in the forest types, it's a lot of backing off, scratching a little bit of line and making a little bit of line with bladder bags, then firing that off back to the main part of the fire."

Also, Wittie says, engines are used as engines in the Tonto. "You see, up in Region 1, we don't get to utilize the engines much. They're mostly a mode of transportation. Very rarely do we get lucky and get to a fire right off the road in the forest that we can tackle with the engines."

Left to Right: Beau Macey, Wendy Gomendi and Jarel Kurtz take a break from mopping up the Bart Fire in the Cave Creek Ranger District of the Tonto National Forest.

Since the Tonto is near Phoenix, a major metropolitan area, as well as several major recreation areas, the Helena folks found things a bit different than at home. "The amount of traffic, the power lines, the houses. [There are] a lot of looky-loos," Kurtz explains. "At the start of the Bart Fire, we had people walking out through the desert and coming up from the lake to look. Plus, there are vehicle accidents and motorcycle accidents, so there's constantly something going on on the radio — even a manhunt. The first week we were here, they were chasing some convict out by the ranger station. We're not used to that."

Looking Ahead
So far, the firefighters working in both the Tonto and Helena national forests report being very happy with how the exchange program is working. Their bosses hope this program will serve as a model for other forests looking to meet staffing challenges, just as the agreement between the Flathead and Superior national forests acted as a model for them.

Tom Story is a freelance photographer from Tempe, Ariz., who occasionally writes about wildland-firefighting issues. He spent six years doing commercial photography for Arizona State University, and then worked as a newspaper photographer for The Arizona Republic in Phoenix. In 1989, Story began chasing and shooting wildland fire for the newspaper, and in 1997, he restarted his freelance career with a focus on wildfire. His fire images have appeared in books, magazines and advertisements, and he's a contract photographer with the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.