Assistant Wildland Fire Crew Leader

Assistant Wildland Fire Crew Leader

This is a standard wildland fire management position description intended for use in the Klamath Tribes Wildland Fire Management program. The employee serves in a field fire management organization as the Assistant Crew Leader of Wildland Fire Module (WFM). This position is at the full performance level.

A WEM is composed o f a minimum of 10 personnel with a mission of wildland prescribed fire, cultural burning, and fire suppression. The WMs are a highly skilled component of the national wildland fire management program. WMs provide an organized, mobile, and skilled hand crew for prescribed fire, cultural burning, wildfire suppression, preparedness, prevention, monitoring, and hazardous fuels reduction. This resource is available for national and international wildland fire suppression, prescribed fire, and other emergency all-risk assignments with cooperating agencies.

This position is in an organization having a firefighting mission, and is in an established career path. Prior firefighting experience, as gained by substantial service in a primary firefighter position or equivalent experience outside the Federal government is a MANDATORY PREREQUISITE for incumbents of this position.
Project management duties require different and unrelated processes and methods such as coordinating the work of the crew with the fire and fuels management program; property, procurement; training and instruction; the implementation o f fuels management projects; the preparation of work plans, and the preparation of prescribed burn plan segments. These projects have well established administrative requirements, procedures, methods, and timeframes.

The employee is responsible for the leadership of a WFM that is subject to dispatch to any part of the United States or foreign countries following mobilization standards. Incident Management Teams typically use WMs i n the most critical portion o f the fireline and/or for complex firing operations and expect these crews to operate in a variety of intense and constantly changing conditions.

The employee’s primary responsibility on incidents and prescribed fire projects is to be aware of environmental influences and fire behavior and make judgements and adjust tactics as conditions change. Complex variables such as weather, fuels (type and condition), topography, fire behavior, management objectives and resource protection concerns, strategies and tactics, resource availability and capability, employee and public safety, etc., must be considered by the incumbent in making critical decisions under pressure during emergency situations.

The complexity of the work is reflected in the interagency coordination required, the number of people involved at all levels of the program, and the intricacies of managing a balanced program.