National Wildfire Coordinating Group

Latest Announcements

Banner that reads National Suicide Prevention Week, September 10-16, 2023

2023 National Suicide Prevention Week

In recognition of National Suicide Prevention Week, the NWCG Mental Health Subcommittee has created seven days of messaging to support wildland firefighter health and wellbeing...

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Banner that reads NWCG Website Modernization Drupal 7 to 10 Upgrade and Amazon Cloud Migration Tentative Launch Date November 2, 2023

NWCG Migration Test & Validation Phase

Test & Validation begins 09/12/2023. During this phase, the system will be un​available for creating new content or re-designing existing pages. Minor updates such as posting critical memos and correspondence requiring immediate attention will be updated during this period. All other requests will be added to the queue and processed post-launch.

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NWCG Wildland Fire Staff Ride Guide, PMS 470

The NWCG Wildland Fire Staff Ride Guide, PMS 470, is now available...

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group of firefighters in a rocky mountain forest standing before scattered tall trees under a partly cloudy sky.

Recipients of the 2022 Wildland Fire Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Awards Announced

NWCG announces the recipients of the 2022 Wildland Fire EMS Awards...

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NWCG Incident Response Pocket Guide (IRPG)

Request for NWCG Incident Response Pocket Guide, PMS 461, Revision Updates, Memo 23-01

The IOSC is seeking requests for revisions to the IRPG. The IRPG is updated periodically to reflect current standards and to add new information as needed...

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Today's Topic: After Action Review (AAR) – Part 2

The scenario: It's late. The crew has worked the fire for sixteen hours straight. No one has eaten a hot meal for days and, oh yeah, you might as well be....

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Incident Performance and Training Modernization

This short video introduces the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) and its members, governing body, and the consensus process by which decisions are made. Additionally, this is the primer for the Incident Performance & Training Modernization (IPTM) effort; a system focused on improving training effectiveness and efficiencies for wildland firefighters...

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About Us

What We Do

How To Get Involved

Our Mission

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group provides national leadership to enable interoperable wildland fire operations among federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial partners.  Primary objectives include:

  • Establish national interagency wildland fire operations standards. Recognize that the decision to adopt standards is made independently by the NWCG members and communicated through their respective directives systems.
  • Establish wildland fire position standards, qualifications requirements, and performance support capabilities (e.g. training courses, job aids) that enable implementation of NWCG standards.
  • Support the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy goals: to restore and maintain resilient landscapes; create fire adapted communities; and respond to wildfires safely and effectively.
  • Establish information technology (IT) capability requirements for wildland fire.
  • Ensure that all NWCG activities contribute to safe, effective, and coordinated national interagency wildland fire operations.

 

NWCG standards establish common practices and requirements that enable efficient and coordinated national interagency wildland fire operations. These standards may include guidelines, procedures, processes, best practices, specifications, techniques, and methods. NWCG standards are interagency by design; however, the decision to adopt and utilize them is made independently by the individual member agencies and communicated through their respective directives systems.

Incident Position standards are a component of NWCG standards. They enable consistent and uniform performance by personnel mobilized by position under NIMS-ICS principles. Incident position standards include incident position descriptions (duties and responsibilities) and position qualification requirements for training, experience, physical fitness, and position currency.

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) was established in 1976 through a Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior. The memorandum defined the function and purpose of NWCG as follows:

“To establish an operational group designed to coordinate programs of the participating agencies so as to avoid wasteful duplication and to provide a means of constructively working together.  Its goal is to provide more effective execution of each agency’s fire management program.  The Group provides a formalized system to agree upon standards of training, equipment, aircraft, suppression priorities, and other operational areas.  Agreed upon policies, standards, and procedures are implemented directly through regular agency channels.” 

Twelve “working teams” and a number of sub-teams, comprised of member agency leaders and experts in various fields, were established in functional areas such as fire equipment, fire weather, incident operations, training, and incident business. These teams led the initial effort to achieve a broad national standardization in key areas of wildland fire management.

Listed in the order of which they joined, current NWCG members are:

Seventeen primary committees and a number of subordinate groups - again representing the key functional areas in wildland fire management - continue the work of their predecessors. And although individual members are different and agency membership has evolved, the primary mission remains largely unchanged. NWCG continues to provide leadership for a seamless response to wildland fire across the nation.