Strike teams in California are well coordinated and are great moving pieces of info to hear. Just hearing the strike team number you can tell right where the resources came from, and what kind of resources they are.
A Strike Team of engines are 5 engines exactly the same, and a commanding unit. Task Force is any mixture of engines in a group, responding as a group. Ordering a strike team allows the Incident Command to request exactly what they need with no interpretation on anybody's part. A "strike team of type 3 engines" will provide the IC with exactly 5 wildland engines, 15 firefighters and a battalion chf to command the them.
All strike teams in California once mobilized will be on California Travel Net - 169.125. While they may be talking simplex to each other, there are numerous wide area repeaters on that frequency to contact other units at a further distance. You will hear all sorts of traffic here, usually chit chat about the football game or something.
OES/Local Government Strike teams start with 1 through 6 for each OES region. Then they work incrementally from there, allocating approx 25 numbers for each county, and some extras for the larger agencies including LA County Fire etc. What designates the actual jurisdiction they came from are the 3 letter acronyms before each 4 digit number. The letter at the end such as G (Gulf) or C (Charlie) designate what TYPE of strike team it is.
CDF Strike Teams are easier to follow. The first digit 9 designates it as a CDF strike team. The next two digits show what Unit it came from, and the last digit tells what order the strike team left the unit. The letter at the end such as G (Gulf) or C (Charlie) designate what TYPE of strike team it is.
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Hand Crew Strike Teams (minimum of 35 persons, consisting of at least two 16-person crews, each crew has a crew captin, and a strike team leader in charge of entire team. Usually a California Dept of Corrections officer will travel with each CDC team.) Type G: No restrictions on use and has dedicated fireline construction training. These consist of CDC/CYA creqs, USFS/BLM/NPS/BIA Hotshot Crews, and TSI crews.Type H: Restricted use which usually includes no hotline fire line construction, limited in the amount of line they can construct per hour, and requires training on the incident before they go out. These crews are Blue Card crews, Volunteer Hand Crews, crews organized on the spot, mixed-agency crews etc. |
Dozer Strike Teams (2 dozers with their transports and 1 dozer tender. Each dozer has 2 HFEO's (Heavy Fire Equipment Operators for day and night shift) and the dozer tender has a mechanic, and the dozer ST Leader.) Type K: Heavies (D-7 and D-8 cats)Type L: Mediums (D-5 and D-6 or equivalent) Type M: Lightweights (D-4 or equivalient) |