Vermont forestry officials outline expanded wildland fire program, warn of capacity gaps

Commissioner Daniel Fitsko, head of the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, told the Government Operations & Military Affairs committee that the agency has reorganized its wildland fire work into a standalone program and added full-time specialists but still lacks critical equipment and supervisory capacity.

Fitsko said Vermont is “forest strong” — roughly three-quarters of the state is forested and most land is privately owned — and described the department’s responsibilities for state parks, recreation and forest health. He said the department now employs three full-time wildland fire specialists and is building training and response capacity in partnership with local volunteer fire departments, the Vermont Fire Academy and federal partners.

The presentation mattered because officials said Vermont experienced an above-average 2024 fire year, with a concentrated, active fall season that highlighted gaps in equipment, staffing and statewide mutual-aid availability. Agency staff warned the committee the state may return with resource or policy requests to strengthen suppression and preparedness.

Dan Dillon, the state forest fire supervisor, summarized the program’s work and 2024 activity. He said education and training are a major focus: the department delivered the wildland portion of Vermont Firefighter I courses and taught about 460 students last year. The agency oversees roughly 300 town forest fire wardens and issues fire danger notifications from mid‑March through the end of November.

Dillon said the department performed nine official response requests in 2024 — more than some previous years — and that the state’s fall season produced 38 fires in October and November and several multi‑day incidents. He told the committee that for the 2024 season Vermont recorded “above the 10‑year average,” citing roughly 96 fires and 179 acres burned statewide in the period summarized to the committee. He said most Vermont wildfires are human caused: “99% of them are human caused.”

The department described one of the largest incidents in the recent season, the Morgan Road fire in Barnard. Dillon said the fire destroyed two structures, required about 6,000 feet of hose to reach the ignition area, and involved 17 staff from the department alongside U.S. Forest Service personnel and mutual‑aid partners from New Hampshire. He credited a thermal drone mapping tool from the UVM Spatial Analysis Lab with helping crews locate remaining hot spots in remote areas.

Officials reviewed how interjurisdictional resource sharing works in the region. Dillon outlined Vermont’s participation in the Northeast Forest Fire Protection Compact — founded in 1949 and spanning New England, New York and eastern Canada — and described how aircraft and engines move through a national coordination system during large incidents. He said compact partners typically provide assistance without immediate billing for mutual‑aid responses, though aircraft or specialized resources can be expensive when billed.

On preparedness, the agency reported it instituted a five‑level statewide wildland fire preparedness scale this year and reached level 4 (the second‑highest) for 14 days in 2024. The department issued a temporary stop‑issuing‑permits order for town fire wardens — commonly described by the public as a “burn ban” — for roughly two weeks statewide and extended the restriction in southern counties, for a total of about 30 days. Dillon said the department uses statutory authority for those orders and coordinates daily with the National Weather Service when evaluating risk.

Committee members pressed officials on equipment and staffing. Dillon said Vermont has no in‑house capacity to maintain engines and does not currently own a nationally typed wildland engine; he estimated one such engine would cost about $265,000. He said the agency is exploring federal grants, a possible state loan program and other funding options and may return to the committee with requests.

Agency directors emphasized supervisory capacity as a limiting factor for expanding a state emergency firefighter program. Oliver Pearson, director of forestry, and Dillon said the department currently has only a few staff qualified to supervise incident crews; national standards limit one supervisor to a small number of direct reports, so sending large numbers of newly trained firefighters into the field would be unsafe without more line supervisors. Pearson said there is broad public interest in red‑carded (nationally certified) firefighters but the state “does not have enough staff with fire line supervision qualification” today to expand a program to non‑state employees.

Fitsko and staff described ongoing prevention work, including a federal US Forest Service grant program that helps rural towns (under 10,000 population) purchase protective equipment with a 50% federal match, and small prescribed‑burn partnerships with the Green Mountain National Forest to build experience. The department said it also deployed outreach — social media, press releases and Smokey Bear events — during the elevated fall conditions to reduce careless burning.

Officials cautioned that many fires are ignited by improper ash disposal and debris burning without permits; Dillon said improper ash disposal accounted for a large share of acreage in recent months. He said local fire wardens retain authority to restrict burning in their jurisdictions and that statewide orders are used when conditions and resource availability warrant.

The session closed with officials and legislators agreeing to continue discussions about funding, a possible state wildland engine purchase and policy to grow supervisory capacity and an emergency firefighter program. Fitsko said the department may bring resource or legislative requests in the next year if federal and other grant searches do not meet needs.