How Spectrum Enables Agencies to Fight Wildfires

The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) and the National Interagency Incident Communications Division (NIICD) are responsible for coordinating communications when federal agencies are managing wildfires. Portable radios, which require access to radio frequency spectrum, are the primary communications tool for firefighters. As crews respond, Communications Duty Officers at the NIICD work to secure the needed frequencies – in a matter of hours.

The NIICD has access to about 50 frequencies as a baseline, and can secure more by working with frequency managers at the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, the Department of the Interior and the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as federal agency members that make up NTIA’s Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee and Frequency Assignment Subcommittee. Some of those baseline frequencies are “clear” – meaning there are no other users – but others are shared by more than one federal agency. Frequency managers must ensure there is no interference as firefighters begin to use a particular frequency. The NIICD is a partnership between the five federal agencies that are responsible for managing fires on more than 676 million acres of land: the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service, and US Fish and Wildlife Service, along with the US Forest Service.