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State officials and Forest Service describe October 2024 wildfire response, urge improved regional coordination and pre‑positioning
Summary
Homeland Security, the North Dakota Forest Service and other state agencies briefed the Emergency Response Services Committee on wildfire readiness, describing the October 2024 outbreak, mutual‑aid procedures, National Guard aviation rules, federal assistance and proposals to improve regional surge capacity.
State emergency management and the North Dakota Forest Service told the Emergency Response Services Committee that the state’s response to large, fast-moving wildfires depends on pre‑season planning, mutual aid compacts and early coordination with federal partners — and that the October 2024 wildfire outbreaks exposed gaps the state is working to close.
Darren Hansen, director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM), described the agency’s role maintaining the state emergency operations plan and the fire incident annex: “Within that, we have what we call the fire incident annex. That describes how we will organize a response to both wildland fire and urban fires,” he told the committee.
HSEM emphasized centralized monitoring and the state ‘‘watch center,’’ which collects weather and dispatch intelligence and notifies local emergency managers when threats rise. Hansen said the watch…
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