Another successful Montana Mutual Aid meeting wrapped up Sunday afternoon 11/3/2013
Updates, lessons learned and best practices from very recent events were presented and discussed.
Tim McSherry, Jefferson County (Colorado) Sheriff’s Office (ret.)
Tim walked us through the recent catastrophic flooding in Colorado, discussing the successes, challenges and preparations. Tim stressed that when everything is falling apart, relationships are of extreme importance. Seemingly insurmountable problems were overcome through cooperation and relying on established and new relationships. Tim also talked about the overwhelming challenges of recovery from the flooding, including 1 town’s total isolation due to the federal government shutdown.
Kevin Conant, B.C. San Jose Ca. Fire Department (ret.)
Provided updates to the Yarnell Hill Fire investigation and lessons learned.
Sonny Stiger, FBAN Lewis and Clark County.
Discussed Enough is Enough and the collaboration between Sonny and the greater Helena area fire departments efforts to gain county commissioners support by proclamation.
Brian Costigan, Montana DOJ All Threats Intelligence Center. Updated everyone about ongoing threats to Montana and the United States.
Ed Tinsley, Administrator Montana DES.
Reaffirmed his agency’s continuing support of Montana Mutual Aid. Ed updated us on an MOU being worked out between the State of Montana and the Providence of Alberta concerning Comprehensive and Cooperative Emergency Management. This MOU will allow Montana and Alberta to “legally” assist one another during emergencies.
Thank you to Ed, Dave Maser and Mt DES for their continuing support of MMA.
John Woodland, Chief of Superior Mt Fire Department. Shared his experiences as a host to MMA at the West Mullen Fire. John advises the Superior Fire Department stands ready to return the help he received and was very pleased with the efficiency of the system, the quality of the response and the command aid.
Ed Burlingame, MSFSTS
MMA Value for West Mullan and Lolo Complex fires 8/28/13
Ed crunched the numbers and supplied the information for the West Mullan MMA response to Chief Woodland. Overall, for the West Mullan and Lolo Complex fires I derived the MMA value by:
? Utilizing NRCG IIBM Chapter 10 2013 EFF rates for personnel.
? Utilizing NRCG IIBM Chapter 50 2013 rates for equipment (Unoperated).
? Accounting for time portal-portal.
? Did NOT factor O/T. Rates are flat rate.
? Accounting for only MMA time. Some equipment/personnel were picked up by the fires following deployment.
The results:
West Mullan Fire = $57,000.00
Lolo Complex Fire = $5,020.00
Leo Dutton, Sheriff Lewis and Clark County. LCSO’s deployment to the West Mullen Fire, Superior Mt. Also Sheriff Dutton was recognized by MMA for his leadership role in and support of MMA.
Steve Harada, MFSTS. Update on the status of the Montana Fire Services Training School. Also briefed us on the MMA Highline meeting held 10/29/13 in Glasgow attended by 25 chief officers.
John Culbertson, Ed Burlingame, Cory O’Brian, Craig Jeppson, Kevin Conant, Terry Larson command simulations, strategy and Tactics for Command of Fires in Structures and update on NIST Fire Dynamics Research.