The Value of the National Response Framework

NRF: National Response Framework and the 2015 California Wildfires According to FEMA, the National Response Framework is "a guide to how the Nation responds to all types of disasters and emergencies. It is built on scalable, flexible, and adaptable concepts" (National Response Framework, 2013, p.i). Its framework is open-ended given that it is intended to cope with both manmade disasters like terrorism and natural disasters like fires and hurricanes.

The principles of the NRF include "(1) engaged partnership, (2) tiered response, (3) scalable, flexible, and adaptable operational capabilities, (4) unity of effort through unified command, and (5) readiness to act" (National Response Framework, 2013, p.5). A good example of this is when a coordinated response to forest fires is demanded. While local firefighters may be able to contain a small blaze, fires such as the out-of-control California wildfires of 2015 require additional assistance. Although any disaster can be potentially deadly, fire can be an extremely difficult phenomenon to predict in terms of its trajectory.

Also, unlike other weather-related concerns, the risks of fire are not confined to a discrete period of time and can spiral out of control for long periods. In the past, depending on the patterns of the Santa Ana winds, fires in California have burned swaths as vast as 200,000 acres. The 2015 fires were so virulent that they burned "20,000 acres in a five hour period' even without favorable winds, which was considered "unprecedented in recent times" (Mooney 2015).

Not only did this far exceed the capabilities of local authorities to cope with the blaze; the fires themselves were not confined to a local jurisdiction. According to the NRF, "when an incident grows or has the potential to grow beyond the capability of a local jurisdiction and responders cannot meet the needs with mutual aid and assistance resources, local officials contact the state" (National Response Framework, 2013, p. 27). However, in the instance of the 2015 wildfires, the conflagration proved to be so immense, intensive federal assistance was required. "The Obama administration ..

directed $250 million toward fighting the wildfires raging in California and elsewhere, in addition to $450 million already transferred from different parts of the federal budget earlier this year to go toward fighting such disasters" (Parsons & Memoli 2015). This is an acknowledgement of the imperative of protecting life and property from catastrophic national calamities. Under most circumstances, the federal budget is devoted to focusing on addressing the conditions that lead to forest fires, rather than to suppressing the fires themselves.

"While the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior are able to suppress or manage 98% of fires with allocated funds .. About 1% or 2% of fires consume 30% or more of total actual annual fire suppression dollars" (Parsons & Memoli 2015). There is always a concern if too much of this money is devoted to dealing with the fallout of "catastrophic megafires," there will be insufficient funding for tasks such as controlled burning which reduce the risk of such fires becoming out of control (Parsons & Memoli 2015).

Particularly given the drought California has suffered in recent years, there must be contingency plans for supporting the suppression of forest fires, which the NRF is uniquely equipped to provide. Dealing with the human toll of forest fires is also important. The fires rendered families and.