Wildland Fire Crews

Wildland firefighting in the United States is done by a family of specialized crews, each built for a different part of the problem. This guide explains the major crew types and how they work together, from the first smoke report to the last day of mop-up.

Engine crews and hand crews

Most wildland firefighters work on engine crews or Type 2 hand crews. Engines patrol and respond along the road system, providing water and quick initial attack. Hand crews of up to twenty firefighters construct fireline, burn out fuels, and mop up. These crews are the workhorses of fire suppression, and nearly everyone in the specialized programs below started on one.

Hotshots

Interagency Hotshot Crews are roughly 20-person hand crews held to national standards for fitness, training, leadership, and availability. They specialize in the most demanding assignments on large fires: steep ground, heavy fuels, and complex burnout operations, on multi-week assignments throughout the season.

Smokejumpers

Smokejumpers parachute from fixed-wing aircraft to reach remote fires quickly, carrying everything they need to work alone for days. Run by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, jump programs cover enormous geography and are a premier remote initial attack resource.

Helitack

Helitack crews pair wildland firefighting with helicopter operations: rapid initial attack delivery, water drops, sling loads, helibase management, and reconnaissance. They are the ground component of wildland fire aviation, and their helicopters serve every other crew type on the fire.

Helicopter rappellers

A small minority of helitack crews are rappel-qualified. Helicopter rappellers descend on ropes from a hovering helicopter into terrain with no landing zone: steep, roadless, timbered country where a new fire would otherwise burn unstaffed for a day or more. The North Idaho Rappellers, based in Hayden, Idaho, are one of these crews.

How they work together

A typical season shows the system in motion. Lightning starts a dozen fires overnight. Engines catch the ones near roads. Rappellers and smokejumpers catch the remote ones while they are small. A fire that escapes initial attack grows into a campaign incident, and hotshots, hand crews, engines, and helitack converge on it. No single crew type could replace the others.

For the comparison people ask about most, see Smokejumpers vs. Rappellers. And if you want to be part of it, the Recruitment page explains how to join this crew.