Strike Teams are ways of moving a larger number of pieces of equipment and manpower in a faster, more efficient and organizied maneuver. Thanks to some people in the communications forces of firefighting I have some Strike Team information.
The beginning 9 means the strike team is from CDF. Other agencies have
their own number. The second two numbers are the unit numbers. CDF has
all their unit numbers assigned like "25" for Tehama. So the next two numbers
after 9 is the unit number. The last number is the number in order of strike
teams leaving the unit. So the first team leaving would be 0. The second
would be 1 and so forth. The 5th is 4. The last designator is the type
of crew it is. The table below is the information that shows what the last
designator means. For example, Strike Team 9254Gulf would be CDF Unit 25
(Tehama)'s 5th strike team out of Type 1 Handcrews leaving the
Tehama Ranger Unit.
Engines:
Type A: Five Type 1 Engines (1000 GPM pump - 400 Gal. tank - 4/0 staffing)
Type B: Five Type 2 Engines (500 GPM pump - 400 Gal. tank - 3/0 staffing)
Type C: Five Type 3 Engines (120 GPM pump - 300 Gal. tank - 3/0 staffing)
Type D: Five Type 4 Engines (mini pumpers - 50 GPM pump - 200 Gal. tank
- 3/0 staffing)
Hand Crews:
Hand crew strike teams are a minimum of 35 persons, usually consisting of two 16-man crews, each with a crew Captain, and a Strike Team Leader.
Type G: No restrictions on use - usually have more training - e.g.: CDC & CYA crews. USFS, BLM, NPS, BIA and HotShot crews and TSI crews.
Type H: Restrictions on use - Restrictions are usually no hot
line construction, and limited in the amount of line they can construct
per hour. E.g.: Blue Card crews, Volunteer Hand Crews, Incident organized
hand crews, Mixed-Agency crews.
Dozer:
Dozer strike teams consist of 2 dozers with transports and 1 dozer tender. Each dozer has 2 HFEO's (Heavy Fire Equipment Operators - day and night shift) and the dozer tender has a mechanic/operator/dozer Strike Team Leader.
Type K: Heavy (D-7, D-8)
Type L: Medium (D-5, D-6) > or equivalent
Type M: Light (D-4)
Command Nets:
Command Nets are nice to listen to because they are on top of mountain tops and scattered all over the state. Click here for Command 1 and Command 2 state locations on a map. You may notice numbers next to the repeater locations. Those numbers are the tones for the repeater. To activate that certain repeater the engines/units must TX the proper CTCSS tone to them. That way, the nearby repeaters aren't activated. In some instances though, a repeater say on tone 1 may key up the next repeater on that tone to the north and then those people in the area can hear what is going on way down south on those command nets. That's nice to hear during large fire situations.
Incident Command System:
The Incident Command System was adopted by the fire system for coordinating a large incident and all the aspects of a large incident. This system covers the logistics, operations, planning and financial part of a fire or other large incident (or any incident actually). Below is a picture of what the Incident Command System looks like at a large incident. This rugged and well known outline is used now by all departments under state law in California. Both Law and Fire personnel are trained in the Incident Command System. This system works for any incident and helps coordinate and take the chaos out of what would otherwise be a very devastating situation with 50 commanders running around aimlessly. EXAMPLE ONLY - not every incident will have the same frequency lineup.