Topic Title Template

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#1

Topic Titles:

When creating a new topic for discussion it is important to think about your title. If you are not posting in a region discussion there is no format for topic titles, try to use a title that summarizes your topic of discussion. However, if you are creating a topic for a new or ongoing fire(Initial Attack or Continuing Fire subcategories) there is a specific format we like to follow:

2 letter state ID - 3 letter designator for the agency with jurisdiction - fire name if known
For example, CA-LPF-Pozo(California, Los Padres National Forest, Pozo Fire)

If you want to post in the Questions/Discussions subcategory regarding a fire use the above format with ā€˜???ā€™ at the end.
For example, CA-LPF-Pozo???

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#2
#4

How about a list of agencies and their abbreviations? Otherwise, as a new person, Iā€™m lost.

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#5

It is a long list, every fire agency/unit in the nation has its own unique combination of state and three (sometimes four) character identifier. The database is available here:
https://unitid.nifc.gov/

You have to click through a couple of screens, but if you select the read only version it is public with no login needed. The unit identifiers in the database start with US, you can skip that for the forums and just use the two letters for the state and three or four for the unit.

If the fire is under a federal dispatch center that uses WildCAD and has enabled WildWeb, you can find the identifier for each fire that they dispatch on the WildWeb page for that dispatch. The list of dispatches and links to their WildWeb is here:
http://www.wildcad.net/

Each dispatch center also has a unique identifier, however, the fires are tied to an agency/unit that has protection responsibility, not the dispatch. You will see incidents show up with the dispatch identifier sometimes until a protecting agency is confirmed.

A few tips:

  • Forests usually end in F.
  • BLM districts usually end in D.
  • CAL FIRE units end in U.
  • The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit is an exception to the above as it is CA-TMU.
  • BIA identifiers usually end in A.
  • FIsh and Wildlife refuses usually end in R.
  • In some states, like Nevada, local fire departments have four letter designators that end in X.
  • The two letters for the state in the unit identifier refer to the home state of the unit, not the state the fire is in (eg NV-HTF fires in CA and CA-INF fires in NV).
  • The letter IDs can repeat in different states. AZ-TNF and CA-TNF are not the same.
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#6

National Unit Identifiers
This pdf over 400 pages, but has every agency listed by GACC

National_Unit_Identifiers.pdf (1.4 MB)

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#7

Here is a link to Cal-OES page that gives you links to download the California Field Operations Guide (FOG). It lists the 3-letter designator of every fire agency in California and a few near-by agencies in Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona. https://firescope.caloes.ca.gov/fog-manual

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