NIFC Doesn’t Just Fight the Wildfires In and Around Boise

NIFC logonifc.gov

While many people don’t think of Boise, Idaho, as the center for anything really important (even though several major national corporations have been established here), summer and fire season usually bring one national organization to the forefront — the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).

NIFC campusnifc.gov

The campus for NIFC (pronounced nif-see) is on a plot of 55 acres adjacent to the Boise Airport. As the nation's support center for wildland firefighting, NIFC has areas for refurbishment of firefighting equipment, aircraft ramp operations, aircraft retardant tanker operations, as well as administrative functions serving the mission of wildland fire and other emergencies.

A Little History

original BIFC warehousenifc.gov

Before there was NIFC, there was BIFC, the Boise Interagency Fire Center. It was created in 1965 because the USDA Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Weather Service saw the need to work together to reduce the duplication of services, cut costs, and coordinate national fire planning and operations. A few years later in the mid 1970s, the National Park Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs joined BIFC.

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service joined in 1979. And then fourteen years later, in 1993, the center's name was changed from the Boise Interagency Fire Center to the National Interagency Fire Center to more accurately reflect its national mission.

nifc.gov

It’s logical to think of NIFC as primarily fighting wildfires, both locally and nationally. I live a few miles from the airport, but in this fire season, I see many firefighting planes both heading out and coming back in for retardant refills. The orange underbelly of most of the planes indicates the planes purpose -- fight fires.

In addition to fighting fires, NIFC also supports other emergency responses, including floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, riots, terrorist attacks (9/11 and Oklahoma City bombing), and radios to Haiti.

The image immediately above of the large sign with logos on it represents the nine agencies that work together at NIFC. Starting from top left and going clockwise the agencies are

• Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
• U.S. Forest Service
• U.S. Fire Administration
• National Association of State Foresters
• U.S. Department of Defense
• Bureau of Indian Affairs
• National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (Weather Service)
• U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
• National Park Service

The NIFC website nifc.gov contains links for useful information such as fire statistics, summaries, and maps (both current and four-month projections). Here is some date that is current as of today, July 22, 2021 (https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/nfn): “Currently, 79 large fires and complexes have burned 1,448,053 acres. More than 21,700 wildland firefighters and support personnel are assigned to wildfires across the United States.”

https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/nfn

Idaho and its eastern neighbor Montana currently have a combined 33 of the 79 large active fires in the U.S. Even Oregon with 7 fires is impacting the current weather in Boise and the rest of Idaho with smoke and haze.

It’s not always easy to grasp “how large” something is when expressed in terms of acres. But the total above of the acres of active fires — 1,448,053 -- is equivalent to over 2,262 square MILES. That’s a lot of land being consumed by fire. There are some benefits to forest fires, or at least parts of the fires, but those benefits will have to be the subject of another article.

Is this Year Worse for Fires?

It seems that every year is a worse year for fires, but that can be just our presumption. Below is more data from the National Fire News page.

https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/nfn

It does appear that 2021 is the second-worst year in terms of the number of first, with 2017 having only 38 more first at this point in the year. But in terms of acreage burned, this year is fifth, so the fires have been smaller on average in most of the previous ten years.

Forest fires have always been a part of nature, and they will continue to be so long after we’re gone. When lightning strikes start a fire, that’s nature. When a careless person starts a fire by tossing a burning cigarette, or leaving a campfire smoldering, or throws an incendiary device — that is plain inconsideration.

Please be careful this fire season; don’t be the cause of an unnecessary forest fire.

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