GIS = Geographic Information Systems = Mapping

Aaron is a member of a national Incident Management Team, or IMT, which manages rapidly-spreading and complex wildland fires and other multi-hazard incidents using Incident Command Structure, or ICS. GIS Specialists are part of the Planning Section, Situation Unit of ICS.  Below is the Incident Command Structure layout of positions. ICS is scalable and the large percentage of wildfires use just a couple Divisions within the Operations Section.

Past initial attack, and as an incident becomes larger than the local resources can handle, Incident Management Teams are requested that are local, regional or national. There are several levels of IMTs based on complexity, such as Type 3 and Complex Incident Management Teams, or CIMT, which were known as Type 2 and Type 1 IMTs. Team members from Arizona and New Mexico and are on call throughout the year. They play a vital role in incident management directly at the scene; constantly gathering new information hourly to provide daily to incident operations, regional and national incident management, and the general public. 

Most of the assignments are for wildland fires. Daily work on assignments lasts up to 16 hours for two weeks at a time, at which point another IMT rotates in, if needed, and incidents can be located anywhere within the United States. Annual days on assignments could be several months. Work is done on site or remotely using internet management mobile apps and desktop software to communicate conversations, smart map files, images, and interactive maps with all IMT members. All this incident work experience is brought back to share with local agencies and to better respond to local incidents.  Wildland fire incidents are searchable and listed at inciweb.nwcg.gov which consumes the on-incident GIS mapping work to the general public.

Map data for publishing updates are done several ways with overnight Infrared mapping and interpretation, verbal updates throughout the day from operations, and mobile device apps used by operations personnel.
ESRI's Field Map app is used by operational personnel to not only download an offline copy of the online map data for the incident in a specific area, but also capture new location information and then sync back to the online map data once back in reception of cell or WiFi internet.

In the last several years Guardian Medical Transport's GIS Specialist, Aaron Seifert has worked on IMTs for most recent Flagstaff area wildfires: 2019 Museum, 2021 Rafael, 2022 Tunnel, and 2023 Cecil fires.  These are in addition to many other wildland fires around the western United States in the past 15 years.  Experience gained from other assignments in the Southwest and the Western United States plays an important role to assist our local Flagstaff area wildland fire Operations Sections with each Fire Department, District or National Forest. 

Here are examples of different types of maps produced for incident personnel (click on an image to open a larger image):