Wildfires have held the attention of Coloradans through a brutal season fueled by drought. But despite our fixation on the flames, few of us see the complex network of people working behind the scenes to fight them.
If you picture wildfire crews as helicopter pilots and firefighters working in the woods, you’re missing a big part of the picture.
At the Incident Command Post, dozens of people perform jobs that are essential to the response, but rarely get much public attention.
“And so our job here, you can kind of think of it like Amazon,” said Julia Pappas, an administrative specialist with the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri. “We get to post up maps, closures, detailed information of the incident,” said Matthew Gilatti, who works in public information. Brandon Hogeland, a lieutenant with South Metro Fire Rescue outside Denver, is training as a heavy equipment boss.
Those three individuals represent three very different roles. Pappas keeps the command post stocked; Gilatti keeps the public informed; and Hogeland operates heavy equipment used to repair areas disturbed by firefighting operations.
But this work is not solitary. The teams and individuals working on the fire hail from all over the country, but that doesn’t mean they operate as isolated cells. At the Incident Command Post, many roles become intertwined.
Hogeland’s team works closely with resource advisors, specialists who guide suppression efforts to protect natural, cultural and heritage assets. Those specialists, who usually have backgrounds in biology or environmental science, guide operators like Hogeland on repairing burn scars and minimizing impacts.
“This is on Forest Service land, so we work with the resource advisors as far as what they want it to look like and the specs,” Hogeland said. “So the guidance we got was to come in, smooth out or kind of roughen up where the bulldozer put in containment line and then to pull the brush back over it to help control erosion.”
He said resource advisors provide guidance on what the landscape should look like when the work is complete.
Pappas is working at the Gold Mountain Fire as a receiving and distributing manager trainee. Her role is crucial for managing the logistical supply chain supporting firefighting efforts.
“So we take in the materials that are needed out on the line and here in camp, and then as people need something, we, you know, package it up, and we deliver it to them, or sometimes, like, they'll come pick it up,” Pappas said.
She works closely with ground support, which provides drivers to transport supplies into the field. A camp crew from Oregon also helps package, consolidate and unpack materials.
“So kind of just to give you, like, an idea of what a typical day might be, so we have to keep track of what's in our yard,” Pappas said.And the collaboration doesn't stop at the command post. Gilatti says every person working on the fire has another network of people supporting them back home.
“And not just my wife, Olivia, or my kiddo Penelope, but my family, my, you know, my mom, sister, siblings, all my family, they jump in to help support her,” Gilatti said. “And then on top of that, you know, my home unit, too, they're taking care of staffing my position too.”
He said that while one person may leave their community to work on a fire, many more people are supporting that person behind the scenes.
“So huge, huge shout out to the families out there for everybody from the firefighters online to, you know, the incident commander, logistics, radio comps, everybody that does stuff here, they got somebody else back home helping take care of,” Gilatti said.
From the people repairing containment lines to those keeping the command post stocked — and the families supporting them back home — wildfire response depends on far more people than those we see on the fireline.
It’s a vast network of people with different skills, backgrounds and responsibilities, all working together to keep each other safe and protect communities.
