The Blue Mountain Interagency Dispatch Center became a more efficient

operation this summer as two national forests combined dispatching

resources under one roof.

The center, within the Forest Service fire center at the Union County

Airport, provides dispatching services for wildland fire incidents in

Northeast Oregon, Southeast Washington, the Pacific Northwest and the

nation. Its primary area of responsibility takes in the Wallowa-Whitman

and Umatilla national forests.

Co-located with the Forest Service’s fire cache and air tanker base on Downs Road, the dispatch center focuses on reporting and tracking fires, and processing orders for aircraft, equipment, crews and crew leaders and supplies.

Until last year, dispatch and the fire cache were situated in an aging building along Pierce Road on the other side of the airport. The Forest Service needed more room for its fire operations and began working with Union County on plans for a new building.

As design progressed, a decision was made to include a joint Wallowa-Whitman-Umatilla national forest dispatching operation.

The updated interagency fire center, leased from Union County, opened last June, with the joint dispatch center completed in June this year.

“We basically built a brand new organization that has increased responsibilities,” said Dispatch Center Manager Renae Crippen.

Crippen said the combined dispatch center is in close daily contact with a host of forest management agencies, including the two national forests, the Oregon Department of Forestry, the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs and local 9-1-1.

Combining staff from the two forests makes it easier for the center to keep up with demands, Crippen said.

“I think now we’re more efficient in our ability to share resources across agency borders,” she said.

Counting dispatchers moved over from Pendleton, the dispatch center employs 13 permanent workers and five temporary seasonal workers, with dispatching operations broken into two sections: initial attack and logistics.

The staff stands ready to handle calls from all over the region. A fire report might come in via 9-1-1, or from a lookout station or a reconnaissance flight. In any case, the report is routed to initial attack first.

Initial attack dispatcher Chris Wagner, on duty during a recent media tour of the facility, said his first task is to get key information, including fire location, its approximate size, smoke characteristics and more, from the person doing the reporting.

Wagner said his job is a little easier if the report comes from a trained observer. In other circumstances, good interview skills come into play.

“If it’s just someone out in the woods for a day, it takes more questioning,” Wagner said.

Each initial attack dispatcher has an assigned geographic area of responsibility, and also a pre-planned protocol to follow. After gathering information, the dispatcher determines what resources are immediately available, and sends them out. From there, the incident is turned over to on-the-scene fire managers.

Wagner is a summer employee who works as a teacher the rest of the year. The fact that he has been a wildland firefighter in the past gives the center an advantage, Crippen said.

“All our dispatchers have firefighting experience, and that is very helpful,” she said.

Dispatch operations include a fire intelligence component as well. The fire intelligence section tracks current fire danger, Industrial Fire Precaution levels, current weather and available resources and also keeps track of regional and national fire information.

Fire Intelligence knows the location of every Forest Service worker in the field, no matter the time of year and no matter the assignment. When fires are burning, the tracking job goes on 24 hours a day.

“Our priority here is the safety of the firefighter on the ground,” said Crippen.

Jerry Garrett, the center’s floor lead, was another who said firefighter safety is the dispatch center’s paramount concern.

“I think it’s really easy not to understand how huge this responsibility is,” he said.

The center’s logistics section tracks the availability of resources ranging from local vendors operating pumper trucks, to firefighting aircraft based in faraway places. Orders for personnel, services and equipment are placed by the section.

A state-of-the-art computer program, called the Resource Ordering and Status System, keeps the logistics section connected to other centers nationwide. Computer technology is a blessing, said Crippen.

“We used to do all of this on card stock. Now, every dispatch center in the nation is connected,” she said.

Northeast Oregon had a wet spring this year, and so far there haven’t been many fire calls. But Crippen said the dispatch center is ever-alert for changes and keeps up with developments minute-to-minute.

Sooner or later, there’s bound to be some action.

“The spring rains have helped us, but this current warm weather will dry the grass out,” Crippen said.

When fires do break out, the response will be quick. There’s been enough time to work the bugs out of the new dispatch system, and also to prepare for whatever comes.

“We’ve been busy with consolidation and getting ready for the season,” Crippen said.

Fire intelligence information and more is listed at the center’s website, http://www.bmidc.org.