Your County Assist Team
"CAT"
Incident Management Team
Mission: Provide a cost effective, readily available incident management resource for locat jurisdictions to work with them in bringing order out or the chaos that results during an emergency or disaster.
What is the "CAT" team?
The CAT team is an all-hazard Incident Management team that was originally formed to help rural and volunteer fire departments with wildfires when the local initial forces became streched beyond their resource level. The team is sponsored by Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC).
CAT Team Members
This team is unique in that the core team consists of Eastern and Central Montana people that represent a wide variety of professions - including volunteer fire fighters, farmers, ranchers, businessmen, electricians, appraisers, government, DNRC, BLM, and FWP employees. The team members form a complimentary mix of local and interagency personnel with a combined strength due to their diverse expertise. Local government, volunteer fire departments and landowners are comfortable working with this management team due to the fact they know many of them as neighbors, friends or even family.
Team Goals
•Ahdere to local jurisdictional policy, by interfacing and maintaining effective lines of communication with responsible agencies, local leaders and the public.
•Promote mutual respect and rapport between local emergency responders and team members.
•Provide relief and assistance to local emergency responders when an incident becomes too large or complex to manage on their own.
•Increase the response capacity of the local jurisdiction by providing incident management capabilities and access to additional resources.
•Provide a quick response to rural areas that have limited resources.
•Follow recognized standard protocols to keep the safety of the public and the emergency responders as the priority.
•Manage the incident within reasonable financial constraints by utilizing efficient and cost effective techniques.
•Ensure incident documentation with written Incident Action Plans, media and public fact sheets, financial records and resource orders.
•When not involved with an incident, provide training opportunities for local fire and emergency responders.
Training
All team members maintain National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) certification qualification and standards according to the Wildland and Prescribed Fire Qualification Guide. In 2002, the core CAT Team members completed a nationally recognized Complex Incident Management Course in Redding, California. That course emphasized management principles for all-hazard type incidents. Each year, the team provides training for volunteer fire departments during a weekend session with live burn practice and stations on engine and pumper operations, building fireline, and mop-up. All incidents are managed following the National Incident Management System (NMS) Incident Command (ICS) guidelines.
Live Burn Exercises |
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Contact Information to Deploy the CAT
DNRC - Eastern Land Office - Rick Strohmyer - 232-2034
DNRC - Northeastern Land Office - Clive Rooney - 538-7789
DNRC - Southern Land Office - 247-4400
To Contact Us on the Incident
An Incident Command post will be established and regular briefings will be scheduled to facilitate open communications and positive rapport with local land owners, emergency responders and agencies. Based on the incident location, there may be a designated phone number for the incident command post, which will be published. Some areas of the state have cell phone coverage allowing contact with the following individuals:
Incident Comander - Doug Williams - 788-7718 - emai: dwilliams@mt.gov
Information Officer - Linda Williams - 868-1487 - email: lwilliams@montana.edu
Liaison - Doug Martens - 351-1574 - email: rcfire@rangeweb.net
Plans Chief - Steve Stanhope - 932-2082 - email: fireplan@midrivers.com
The public or any emergency responders are welcome to attend the daily briefings. These are held each morning, normally around 6:30 am. Any additional briefing times are listed in the Incident Action Plans. All Command and Staff personnel for the incident are also listed in the Incident Action Plan.
Past Team Assignments
2006 - CAT assisted on fires in the Columbus, Billings, Hardin, Winnett and Cardwell areas.
2005 - Cottonwood Fire, 3,485 acres with some being private and some DNRC land in Stillwater County
2003 -
•Eastern Montana Fire Complex - Swain, Buffalo Creek and Willey Fires over 16,000 total acres. This was a complex of fires stretching from Ashland to Broadus including Custer, Rosebud and Powder River Counties.
•The Moon Creek Fire was 3,000 acres. This fire was on mostly private land with some DNRC and BLM land and was located 25 miles SW of Miles City. Structures were threatened.
•The Treasure County Complex was 10,500 acres. This complex of fires included the Earl Fire along Sarpy Creek; the Starks Fire along Tullock Creek; and the Johnny Fire near Interstate 94. Structures were threatened.
