Readiness

Readiness can be thought of as a staffing level. The concept behind staffing level is that the fire danger continuum can be divided into classes to which preplanned management actions can be tied. It helps you understand where along the fire danger continuum you are today: Are you at the cool end, the hot end or somewhere in between? For each level or class there are designated management actions, which address the expected wildland fire workload potential and the difficulty of the fire suppression effort. Staffing level represents a way of linking fire danger information to fire management decisions.The National Fire Danger Rating System is a system that integrates existing and expected conditions into a qualitive index. On this station, the staffing level is based on the Burning Index (BI).

The Burning Index is related to flame length at the head of the fire. BI is an estimate of the potential difficulty of the fire control as a function of how fast and how hot a fire could burn. The BI is a function of the Spread Component and Energy Release Component. Each of the observations used to calculate the BI are taken and recorded by the Balcones RAWS station. Once the BI is calculated it can be tracked, and a set of critical thresholds can be utilized to establish the break points for each fire danger adjective level.

These adjective class descriptions are specific for the Balcones Fire Program and surrounding area.

Pocket Card - The Fire Danger Pocket Card is a method of communicating information on fire danger to firefighters. The objective is to lead to greater awareness of fire danger and subsequently increased firefighter safety. The Pocket Card provides a description of seasonal changes in fire danger in a local area. It is, therefore, useful to both local and out-of-area firefighters.

The Pocket Card has a very important day-to-today " pre-suppression" use. When the morning and afternoon weather is read each day, the actual and predicted indices are announced. The firefighters can reference their card and see just where they are in the range of possible values for danger-rating. This important information should be discussed at morning crew meetings, as well as tail gate safety meetings.

Most importantly, the card provides a method for everyone involved with wildland and prescribed fire operations to communicate a common understanding of key index values provided by the National Fire Danger Rating System.

Wildland Fire Assessment System - WFAS, is an internet-based information system. This site allows users to view the current and forecasted fire danger adjective level. The current implementation; also, provides a national view of weather and fire potential, including national fire danger, Haines, heavy fuel moisture, weather maps and satellite-derived "Greenness" maps. Current conditions, forecasted conditions, and image and data archives provide real-time access.