Supporting Wildfire Response During a Pandemic in the United States: the COVID-19 Incident Risk Assessment Tool

Matthew P Thompson,Jude Bayham,Erin J Belval,Jake Dilliott

doi:10.3389/ffgc.2021.655493

Abstract

The onset of the global pandemic in 2020 significantly increased the complexity and uncertainty of wildfire incident response in the United States, and there was a clear role for decision support to inform and enhance coordination and communication efforts. Epidemiological modeling suggested the risk of COVID-19 outbreak at a traditional large fire camp could be substantial and supported the broadscale implementation of mitigations, and management of COVID-19 required expanding the response network to interface with entities such as local public health agencies, hospitals, and emergency operations centers. Despite the early issuance of medical and public health guidance to support wildfire management functions under a COVID-19 modified operating posture, an identified gap was a scale- and scope-appropriate tool to support incident-level assessment of COVID-19 risk. Here we review the development and application of a COVID-19 Incident Risk Assessment Tool intended to fill that gap. After prototyping with fire managers and risk practitioners, including early-season use on several incidents, we built an online dashboard that was used operationally throughout the 2020 fire season. We summarize usage statistics, provide some examples of real use on wildfire incidents, and report feedback from users. The tool helped to fill a critical information gap and was intended to support risk-informed decision-making regarding incident logistics, operations, and COVID-19 mitigations.

Highlights

Response to wildfire incidents can be a complex and uncertain endeavor, with management challenges and prospective losses increasing as human development expands into burnable areas and climate change leads to increased fire activity (Thompson, 2013; Abatzoglou and Williams, 2016; Radeloff et al, 2018)
At each individual incident these personnel interact with each other in fire camps and at incident command posts These personnel move between fires over the course of the fire season; at each fire, individuals are exposed to a new group of personnel
The usage statistics are tracked by the minute and include the number of active connections, Central Processing Unit (CPU) kernel usage in nanoseconds, and CPU user usage in nanoseconds

Summary

Introduction

Response to wildfire incidents can be a complex and uncertain endeavor, with management challenges and prospective losses increasing as human development expands into burnable areas and climate change leads to increased fire activity (Thompson, 2013; Abatzoglou and Williams, 2016; Radeloff et al, 2018). At each individual incident these personnel interact with each other in fire camps (the sites at which the personnel are provided with food, water, areas for sleeping, and sanitary services) and at incident command posts (the location where the primary logistics functions of the fire are administered.) These personnel move between fires over the course of the fire season; at each fire, individuals are exposed to a new group of personnel Due to factors such as high-density living and working conditions, limited hygiene, smoke exposure, and a transient workforce, transmission of infectious disease was already a known risk associated with wildfire incident management activities in the United States. Management of COVID19 required expanding the response network to interface with entities such as local public health agencies, hospitals, and emergency operations centers

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Conclusion