National Fire Chief’s Council supports Tac-ad attendance at biannual UK Wildfire Conference

Q&A session during the 2024 UK Wildfire Conference.

The National Fire Chief’s Council (NFCC) recommends that for development and maintenance of skills purposes that UK-based Wildfire Tactical Advisors (Tac-ads) attend the bi-annual UK Wildfire Conference to widen their understanding of the many aspects that are covered under the wildfire ‘agenda’. The 2024 conference was held in Aberdeen and offered a wide range of topical discussions that provided relevant learning content for the wildfire Tac-ad cadre.

In addition, the opportunity of having UK-based Tac-ads together is optimised through the staging of a separate one-day CPD training event, which is co-ordinated by the Fire & Rescue Service in the region where the conference is held.

Last year’s CPD event was held in Aberdeen on the 14th November at North Anderson Drive Community Fire Station.  The full day schedule for this event included:

1. Input and feedback session from Dr. Tadas Nikonovas (Swansea University) and his project team on the development of a new Fire Danger Rating Systems (FDRS). The aim of this project is to establish and test the scientific underpinning and key components required to build an effective, tailored UK fire danger rating system for use in establishing the likelihood and impact of current and future fire regimes. Following an overview of the system the group provided feedback.

2. Input from Iain Innes, an aviation technical lead for PDG Helicopters. The aim of this session was to provide the Tac-ad cadre with information on: the type and location of helicopters within the UK which can be used to support wildfires; the capability of helicopters to support wildfires; safety information when working with helicopters and; discussion around how Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) could potentially work more effectively with pilots / ground crew at incidents.

3. A case study on the Cannich Wildfire 2023 was presented to the group for discussion and to identify shared learning, which included tactical plan implementation, suppression plans, partnership approach, equipment and vehicle consideration.

4. Group Commander Craig Hope (South Wales FRS / National Resilience) and Dave Swallow (Hereford & Worcester FRS), both of whom are NFCC Wildfire leads, provided an update on National Wildfire matters. Following this session an open floor discussion was facilitated to allow an opportunity for sharing of relevant information among group members.