Discussion Document for CSFC Meeting in Vail on June 12, 2104
Implementation
of the
Colorado Fire Service Statewide Mutual Aid Agreement
(May 18, 2015)
SUMMARY
The purpose of this document is to present the way forward for the implementation of the
Colorado Fire Service Statewide Mutual Aid Agreement and the Colorado Fire Service Statewide
Mutual Aid System.
Much work has been done over the last decade to lay the foundation for what occurred in 2014
& 2015 concerning mobilization exercises and enhancing mutual aid in Colorado. We would not
be able to do what we are doing today without those preceding efforts from many individuals
and different fire departments, organizations and agencies.
Noteworthy is the focus placed on the need to improve initial attack, mutual aid, incident
command systems, and resource mobilization as a result of significant wildland urban interface
fires such as High Park, Waldo Canyon, Black Forest and the devastating floods that challenged
all the emergency services of Colorado.
This document is not intended to be a comprehensive review of the many prologue efforts,
rather it captures the most recent efforts and presents a way forward.
MUTUAL AID & RESOURCE MOBILIZATION
CSFC will concentrate on the development of the statewide mutual aid system and localcounty-state mutual aid......but at the same time maintaining the "connection" to the state
resource mobilization system for when local/regional mutual aid are reaching capacity or have
exceeded capacity and then identifying the "easy button" to access state resource mobilization
through the local EMA.
CSFC has worked, and will continue to work collaboratively, with CEMA, CSOC, DSHEM & DFPC
and recognizes that statewide mutual aid and state resource mobilization are mutually
dependent efforts…..one cannot be successful without the other.
INITIAL ATTACK: HARD, HEAVY & FAST
For most emergency incidents, most actions of significance will be completed within 24
hours….many in even less time. Several key concepts are fundamental to the success of the
initial attack. The efforts must be:
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Locally driven & focused
Simple to understand
Non-bureaucratic
Rapid response
Easy to activate
Delivers what is requested
The faster resources can be notified, mobilized, organized and effectively utilized the greater
the chance that incidents can be contained, minimizing risk to both firefighters and civilians and
keeping expenses as low as possible.
Hard, heavy & fast are the organizational goals of an effective initial attack and an effective
mutual aid system, local-regional-state, supports the initial attack.
MUTUAL AID IN COLORADO
Mutual Aid is the rapid, efficient and cost-effective movement of personnel, equipment and
expertise across jurisdictional lines and mutual aid exists across Colorado in many variations
and without a standardized operational context. A uniform system has yet to be developed.
Most current mutual aid agreements did not envision the challenges facing today’s fire service
such as rapidly developing multi-jurisdictional incidents, such as tornados, floods, multi/mass
casualty incidents, active shooters, wildfires and wildland-urban interface fires. Nor was there
an expectation to have a growing number of re-occurring major incidents all requiring
resources well beyond the local jurisdiction and local/county mutual aid.
In many areas around Colorado, the initial attack and local mutual aid resources are limited and
are fully expended on the initial attack. Consequently, the next level of assistance currently
available to these areas is through the Colorado Resource Mobilization Plan
In preparing for the Democratic National Convention in 2008, the Denver Metro Chiefs
developed the Denver Metro Fire Department Strike Teams which were designed for use in the
Denver Metro area. Subsequently, these strike teams, or components, have been used outside
the Denver Metro area, most notably to the Waldo Canyon and Black Forest WUI fires.
Unfortunately, the concept of pre-determined, organized and exercised strike teams did not
gain traction in other parts of the state.
Recent experiences with large WUI fires & flooding in Colorado have shown that normal mutual
aid often will not provide sufficient resources for hard, heavy & fast and there has been
significant challenges in the critical first 4 hours of major WUI fires in placing significant
resources into operation.
BROKEN ARROW
In October 2013, in testimony to the Colorado Legislature’s Interim Wildfire Matters Committee
Chief Mike Morgan, then CSFC President, committed the CSFC to taking the lead in developing
exercises to evaluate the capability of the Colorado fire service to rapidly mobilize resources
by placing 30 pieces in fire apparatus in two staging areas within 90 minutes of notification.
In November 2013, the Colorado State Fire Chiefs convened a task force to develop, organize
and conduct the Broken Arrow Mobilization Exercises. The Task Force was chaired by Chief
Chris Riley (Colorado Springs) and more than 50 individuals from nearly as many fire
departments, organizations, associations, non-profits and local, state & Federal agencies
participated.
Starting in January 2014 the Task Force held twice monthly meetings until the exercises
happened in May 2014 and then held an AAR meeting to capture the gaps and lessons.
Two mobilization exercises (north & south of Denver) were held, the first on Saturday, 3 May,
2014 at the Douglas County Justice Center (in conjunction with the Douglas County I-Drill) and
the second on Tuesday, 13 May, 2014 at the Budweiser Event Center in Larimer County.
These mobilization exercises were named “Broken Arrow” in recognition of the use of the term
during the Vietnam war when the code phrase “Broken Arrow” was reserved for use in the
most dire situations. Using the term requested all available tactical aircraft for airstrikes in
support of a ground unit facing imminent defeat in battle. The call for “Broken Arrow” was
portrayed in the movie “We Were Soldiers” when LtCol Hal Moore called “Broken Arrow” when
his position was being overrun by North Vietnamese Army troops.
The basic concepts of the Broken Arrow mobilization exercises were:
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Keep it simple
Easy to understand & use
Builds on current systems of mutual aid
Precedes use of resource mobilization
Applicable to all-hazards, but initial exercises will focus on WUI fire
Targeted to Front Range -- implementable to other areas in Colorado
ICS will be key to success
Strike team structure will be used
Firefighter safety & accountability are the prime consideration
The Denver Metro Fire Strike Teams were used as the foundation for the exercises and
commendably many of the Denver Metro Fire Strike Teams participated in both mobilization
exercises.
EVALUATION OF THE BROKEN ARROW
Members of the JeffCo Type III AHIMT served as evaluators for the exercises using these
anticipated performance indicators:
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90 minute response time from activation until all crews arrive @ staging
First Strike Team to arrive in staging
Last Strike Team in staging
Use of Incident Management System / Incident Command System
Effectiveness of wireless communications in the exercises
WebEOC used and validated – proof of concept
Check-in process @ staging
Check-out process/demobilization
KEY OUTCOMES OF BROKEN ARROW
The key outcomes of the two exercises were:
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30 engines in 90 minutes was not accomplished
99 engines in 120 minutes was accomplished
While the 30 in 90 goal was not specifically accomplished, this was primarily due to the travel
times for the fire apparatus responding from long distances…..about 60 miles to the staging
areas.
Overall, the Broken Arrow exercises were very successful and highlighted that the fire service
was capable of self-organizing a very large mobilization of apparatus and firefighters and
placing the majority of those assets in a staging area within 90 minutes….something that had
never been done before in Colorado.
Most important, the Broken Arrow exercises stimulated significant interest across the state and
resulted in a new level of emphasis on the importance of a new approach to improve initial
attack and local-regional-state mutual aid.
AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT
Several key areas for improvement were identified:
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Communication Centers are key to success and deserve additional training to facilitate
their support of large, complex and rapidly developing situations including mobilization
of mutual aid, Strike Teams, IMTs and initiation of enhanced mutual aid/resource
mobilization
Shortening the time from the 911 call to rally point
Identification of rally points that facilitated movement toward the staging area (some of
the engines had to backtrack to the rally point and then deploy in the Strike Team back
past their stations)
Strike Team leader training
Staging area manager training
Development of “How to do it” information & training for organizing and sustaining
Strike Teams
Incident Command training for utilization of rapid mutual aid mobilization
Unified Command training for complex operations
Provision for dispatch of Type III AHIMTs for enhanced incident command capabilities
Development of standardized local fire service mutual aid agreements that facilitate the
development of local, regional and statewide mutual aid
PARTICIPATION & COST OF BROKEN ARROW
Participation from the Colorado fire service was outstanding with nearly 100 agencies
participating including fire departments, emergency managers, CommCenters, state & federal
agencies, Colorado National Guard, Sheriff’s Departments, ARC, Salvation Army, Restoration
Logistics & more. Many organizations participated in both mobilizations:
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68 engines from 46 fire departments (Douglas County)
31 engines from 31 fire departments (Larimer County)
The cost for two major mobilization exercises to the State of Colorado was minimal and
consisted basically of in-kind salaries for state employees. Each participating agency internally
supported the full expenses of their participation including more than 12 Broken Arrow Task
Force meetings as well as their operations costs for participating in the exercises. DHSEM
estimated the cost for each of these exercises for the first operational period, if they had been
actual mobilizations, would have been about $120,000.
Estimated in-kind contribution by the participating agencies in the planning and execution of
these mobilization exercises is at least $250,000. Restoration Logistics provided lunch for the
more than 350 participants in both exercises and the Salvation Army and American Red Cross
provided beverages and snacks.
DRAFTING THE COLORADO FIRE SERVICE STATEWIDE MUTUAL AID AGREEMENT
After the Broken Arrow exercises were completed, several CSFC members began work on the
development of the Colorado Fire Service Statewide Mutual Aid Agreement.
These members included Chief Chris Truty (Tri-Lakes Monument), Chief Bill McLaughin (
Evergreen), Chief Mark Miller (Vail then Loveland) and Deputy Chief Bill Easterling (Genesee)
The intent of the document is to formalize/authorize that we will help whomever asks for help.
If we then want to get into technical details of how and what that help should look like with the
potential of standardizing it, we can build from there.
Various drafts of the document have been circulated to CSFC member fire chiefs in several
counties including El Paso, Teller, Douglas, Pueblo, Elbert, Jefferson, Garfield, Larimer, Park,
Arapahoe, Summit, Grand, Eagle and Routt.
The drafts have been well received and the CSFC members are waiting for the CSFC Executive
Committee’s approval to move forward
TAKING ACTION TO MOVE FORWARD
The following objectives may help in assisting and understanding the purpose of a statewide
mutual aid system. These would be the minimum that we accomplish over the next two years
with progress beyond these being local and based on observed participation.
#1
We formally state that the purpose of the statewide mutual aid plan is to enhance a fire
chief’s resource capability response during the Initial Attack phase of an incident
Arguably, the reason that the Broken Arrow taskforce got so bogged down is that
Extended Attack parameters at times dominated too much of the discussion. We are
not stating when a Fire Chief should choose to move from Iinitial Attack (IA) to Extended
Attack (EA), that is the Incident Commander’s (IC’s)call. Rather if the IC chooses to stay
in Initial Attack mode, then resources are available for the IC to utilze through the
mutual aid agreement
#2
We focus on the signing of the agreement which, in its final form, is nothing other
thanan organized approach to fire departments agreeing (when applicable) to help
another fire department when it is called, no matter the incident.
#3
We focus on the Broken Arrow concept (Heavy, Hard, Fast) to establish within each
county that wants to participate, a minimum of one Type 1 engine and/or one Type 3/6
strike team that is available to an adjacent county which needs to be enroute within 1530 mins of a request.
Strike teams (and Task forces) can be multi-county where a county can't field one on it's
own
We should define task forces that would be commonly requested; i.e. a wildland task
force of 4 engines (type 3 through 6) and a tender. Many, but not all departments are
using type 3 engines instead of 6's.
#4
We collect and distribute statewide dispatch centers contact numbers and procedures
so that the Broken Arrow requests can be fulfilled.
#5
To accommodate some level of monitoring of the process, rather than specific oversight
that is part of the agreement, an Operations section of the CSFC be established for the
purpose of acting as the liaison to outside disciplines who want to discuss interaction or
questions. The actions of the agreement would remain grassroots in its growth, but the
Operations section would monitor its progress.
#6
Another key piece we will need to look at are exercises. The Denver Metro teams
routinely practice assembly; the rest of us could use Broken Arrow type drills on an
annual pre-season basis.
#7
Rather than saying signatories will not belong to any organization, the agreement gives
the signatories the future right to establish an oversight committee in some form and it
allows the committee to be representative in nature
#8
No amendments will be added to the agreement without signatory’s approval
#9
The draft agreement title is an IGA but we could name the system (Colorado Fire Service
Statewide Mutual Aid System)
#10
Action by the CSFC Executive Committee to approve the document and establish a
Task Force with the authority to provide future oversight & direction to implement the
Colorado Fire Serivce Statewide Mutual Aid Agreement & System