Reports of wildland fires in California, Alaska, and Oregon, combined with record-high temperatures and a dry summer, present the daunting task of disaster control.
The Defense Logistics Agency works daily to support firefighters stopping these fires in their tracks through planning and cooperation with firefighting agencies across the country.
Tom Pisarich is the DLA liaison officer to the U.S. Forest Service, the primary wildland firefighting agency in the country and a major DLA partner during wildland fire season. He faces the fight against wildland fires daily by monitoring national preparedness levels and tracking emergency orders placed with DLA’s Customer Interaction Center, as well as the availability of critical items provided by major subordinate commands.
The Forest Service is one of eight agencies with the National Interagency Fire Center. Located in Boise, Idaho, the NIFC is the nation’s support center for wildland firefighting. It supports a series of caches, similar to warehouses, that are strategically located around the country and stocked by DLA and other sources like the General Services Administration.
