My fire service page lists six National Wildfire Coordinating Group qualifications and explains none of them. Outside the fire service, “Engine Boss” and “Division/Group Supervisor” read like job titles. They are not titles. Each is a position a wildland firefighter is certified to fill on an incident, under one qualification standard that federal and state agencies share. That shared standard is why a firefighter qualified in one state can be sent to a fire in another.
How a firefighter earns one
The standard is NWCG’s PMS 310-1, and it stacks the positions. To qualify for one, a firefighter has to have performed satisfactorily in the position beneath it and then complete a position task book for the new one, each task signed off by an evaluator. Nobody is appointed to these.
The six I held
- Engine Boss. Runs one engine and its crew. NWCG rates the position arduous: fieldwork calling for above-average endurance and lifting more than 50 pounds.
- Crew Boss. Leads a hand crew and answers for its safety on wildland and prescribed fires.
- Strike Team Leader. Leads a strike team, which is several resources of the same kind, such as engines, working under one leader.
- Task Force Leader. Leads a task force, which mixes different kinds of resources for one assignment. The standard asks for Strike Team Leader experience first, or two single-resource qualifications plus time as a Type 4 incident commander.
- Division/Group Supervisor. Runs one geographic division of the fire, or one functional group, and carries out that part of the incident action plan. The usual route to it runs through Task Force Leader.
- Incident Commander Type 3. Commands the incident. The current standard requires experience as a Type 4 incident commander and at the strike team or task force level before the Type 3 task book is certified.
That is the ladder. One engine or one crew, then several, then a piece of the fire, then the fire.
Why I still list them
I am a former Fire Battalion Chief, and my work now is industrial hygiene and environmental health and safety. I list the qualifications because of what they demanded: a written plan, a named person responsible for each part of it, and a record that holds up when someone reads it later. Employers are asked for the same three things after a serious injury or a Cal/OSHA inspection.
The agencies and rank are on the firefighter page, and registration numbers are on the credentials page. NWCG publishes the requirements for every position at nwcg.gov/positions.
Michael Karl McNeil, REP, RIH, EPP, QSD. Former Fire Battalion Chief; environmental health and safety and industrial hygiene since 1989.
