Evacuations are a more common experience on wildland fire events today than they were many years ago. Acknowledging that we have a high potential for being assigned to an incident where evacuations are either ongoing when we arrive or began later in the incident, we should consider the appropriate role incident information officers will play as the incident progresses.
In a model for an “Evacuation Information Organization” it has been suggested that only one or two information officers should do intelligence gathering and then keep all of the other information officers apprised of the updates by the use of notes posted on the walls of the information or call center. Those answering the phones then have ready access to all of the updated intelligence.
A basic strategy to prepare for evacuation:
1. Ask the Incident Commander, the Operations Section Chief and the Liaison Officer what trigger points they have determined will begin the first step in an evacuation process – hopefully, that will be the pre-evacuation alert.
2. Closely monitor the proximity to those trigger points and explain to media and anyone else who asks that the possibility of evacuation has been considered and the fire managers will immediately notify the proper jurisdictional authorities (usually the Sheriff’s Office) if it becomes necessary.
3. By sharing that an evacuation is a possibility, you’ve opened the door for assisting the media and the public with the process of evacuating safely. You can now open up the drawer with all of your evacuation tools in it and help get everyone ready.
Wildfire Evacuation Plan is More Than You May Think – this is a document produced by the Florida Division of Forestry and outlines the elements of a complete evacuation plan. It’s an excellent resource to share with potential evacuees and it’s located at the following address:
http://www.fl-dof.com/wildfire/safety_home_evacplan.html
Homeowner Preparations – is a plan that should be shared with media and the public if there is a potential for evacuations in areas where property owners may have enough time to make their homes more defensible before facing the evacuation process.
Be Prepared in Case of an Evacuation – is a brochure produced by the Northern Rockies Fire Prevention Team in Montana. This brochure answers some frequently asked questions.
Preparedness Before the Disaster, Evacuation Essentials and After the Disaster – are downloadable brochures that specifically address how to relocate pets and livestock during evacuation. They are available at the home page of the American Veterinary Medical Association website listed at http://www.avma.org/disaster/saving_family.asp
Prepare, Plan, Stay Informed – is a good website source for people who want more detailed information. This website, located at http:///www.Ready.gov assists people with preparing for different kinds of events.
PopPro Kwik Chek – This one-page handout is a template for what information incident response teams should obtain as soon as they assume management. In many cases, this will be information that the team’s Liaison Officer will get, but the Information function will benefit from it too.
Population Protection Protocols – this document identifies individual responsibilities for all Command Staff positions, and Team interaction responsibilities between positions.
PopPro States Explained – The Missoula County Fire Protection Association and Missoula County Sheriff’s Department offer some basic tips to help determine what actions to take in the event a wildland fire initiates the stages of a population protection plan.
Protection, Pre-evacuation Warning Example – This template provides information officers with a one-page handout that clearly outlines what stage of a protection plan has been triggered and what actions the potential evacuee should take. This is a good resource for sharing with the Sheriff’s deputies who will be making contacts with potential evacuees.
Population Protection Pre-evacuation Contact Data Sheet – This one-page form is an excellent guide for homeowners who face evacuation. Having the information in advance of an evacuation would certainly assist jurisdictional authorities. But, as information officer, your job may be solely to get this sample form into the hands of the right people because it would be inappropriate for us to collect it.
Population Protection Plan Example – This plan contains samples of an evacuation authorization, threats, area and objectives, evacuation stages, an implementation plan, and anticipated resource requirements.
Southern California Firestorm 2003 Evacuations and Homeowners – This document is an excerpt from the full report but it describes the lessons learned about evacuations and homeowners during this incident.
