About Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Fire

Direct link to 2021 video from the National Interagency Fire Center

The Bureau of Land Management Fire Program is housed in the U.S. Department of the Interior: 

As the largest and most complex fire program within the Department of the Interior, BLM Fire is directly responsible for fire management on more than 245 million acres. This land is commonly intermixed with other federal, state, and local jurisdictions, making partnerships and collaborative efforts crucial to the mission of safety and fire management. Overall, BLM Fire implements fire protection on approximately 650 million acres of public land with other fire management agencies.

I have a lot of respect for the work the BLM Fire does as the work to keep us safe from wildfires. 

About BLM Helitack Crews

Direct link to July 2023 from the National Interagency Fire Center on YouTube

For this week's Friday Fun take a look at this seven minute video from the National Interagency Fire Center discussing what a Bureau of Land Management Helitack crew does. As the introduction to the video points out an obvious benefit is seeing beautiful country from the air. But there is a lot more. I have oodles of respect for helitack crews who are flown to wildland fires in remote areas. If the helitack helicopter has a bucket the helicopter will drop water on the fire after the helitack crew is dropped off.  Kudos to the pilots flying these helicopters and the helitack crews they fly. Just as important are all the personnel providing various support service to keep helitack crews flying.

How BLM Fire Uses SEATs

 Sometimes I luck out when I am looking on social media for things to share with you. Yesterday I saw on my Youtube feed a video from the National Interagency Fire Center on their YouTube channel about how the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM0 fire aviation program about their use of Single Engine Airtankers (SEATs) and all the support personal who work with the SEATs. I am aware of the good work that the BLM does out west and applaud their use of SEATs on wildfires in and around their territory. I learned a lot from this video not only about SEATs but also from SEAT aviation managers at various bases used by SEATs. Enjoy. Allow for under six minutes to watch this video.

Direct link from the National Interagency Fire Center on YouTube

2024 Wildfire Season: New BLM SEAT Base in Casper WY

 Direct link to Facebook post by Casper/Natrona County International Airport

I have a lot of respect for the Bureau of Land Management Fire operations in the United States. Further, as regular readers know, I have a lot of respect for Single Engine Airtankers (SEAT) that do important work all over the United States and internationally working wildfires in support of the wildland firefighters on the ground. SEAT bases and other airports capable of handling SEAT traffic and supporting operations in close proximity to wildfires are important. So when I saw reference to the opening of a BLM SEAT base at the Casper/Natrona County International Airport on June 14th, I knew that I wanted to share this with you. I understand that this airport also has a Large Air Tanker base.

Aerial Fire Magazine has a short article about the opening of the new base in Casper that may be found here. In addition, K2Radio out of Wyoming covers the opening of the new base in an article posted after the base opened

A look at what a BLM Hotshot Crew: Life on the BLM Colorado Craig Interagency Hotshot Crew

As someone who cares about what wildland firefighters do, but has no experience as a wildland firefighter, one of the ways I can see what a wildland fire crew does is to watch videos. I found a good video this morning from the National Interagency Fire Center from 2021 called "The Wild Land". From about this video:

During #FireYear2021, the Bureau of Land Management - Colorado Craig Interagency Hotshot Crew was joined on a two-week assignment by a Bureau of Land Management Fire program contract videographer, Matt Irving. Matt was able to capture the crew while assigned to incidents in California and Montana.

I enjoyed seeing the Craig Hotshots  and listening to the crew talk about their work. I hope that you enjoy this video as much as I did.

International Women 's Day: women in wildland firefighting

Tomorrow, March 8, is International Women's Day. I always try to honor all women who are involved in any aspect of wildland firefighting. But March 8th is special so I offer these two stories of women in wildland firefighting. These three represent just a few of the many women working in wildland firefighting to keep us safe from wildfires.

The first is from the Bureau of Land Management

The second is from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection focusing on Ms. Ashley House, Section Warden for the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.

The third and final story is from Coulson Aviation who flies air tankers and helicopters in support of wildland firefighters on the ground. Coulson has contracts in the United States, Chile, and Australia, and perhaps other places that I am not thinking of.