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Abstract
In the 2020 fire season, the fire management community developed and tested a wide range of new practices to meet challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic. To better understand the effectiveness of different innovations and which should be considered for more permanent use, we surveyed Interagency Hotshot Crew (IHC) superintendents in January 2021. We focused on identifying innovations that, regardless of COVID-19, the IHCs would want to keep and why, as well as those that proved problematic. The survey focused on paperwork, briefings, and fire camp and incident command post setup. Results found clear benefits from many of the changes to operational efficiency and crew health and wellbeing; challenges were generally tied to logistical and communication issues. The results of this survey speak to the logistics of running large incident command operations and could be applied both outside the US and outside the field of wildland fire management.
Citation
Belval, Erin; McCaffrey, Sarah; Finney, Trevor; Calkin, David; Greer, Shane. 2023. The impact of COVID-19 prevention measures on interagency hotshot crews in 2020. Journal of Forestry. 121(1): 37-48.
