Southern California Geographic Area Coordination Center

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Located in Riverside, California, the Southern Operations Center, also known as South Ops, is managed cooperatively by the U.S. Forest Service and CAL FIRE to handle the distribution of fire resources in Southern California. Established in 1972, the center handles all planning, situation monitoring, needs projections and resource order processing. Logistical support for other non-fire disasters, such as hurricanes, earthquakes and floods, is also provided by the Center.

Southern California Geographic Area Cooperating Federal and State Agencies include:
•    U.S. Forest Service   
•    Bureau of Land Management   
•    National Park Service   
•    Bureau of Indian Affairs   
•    U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service   
•    California Governors Office of Emergency Services (OES)   
•    California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection (CAL FIRE)

"Our primary function here is the coordination of resources, ground resources primarily. It's a coordination of hand crews, engines and overhead," stated Southern Region Duty Officer & Battalion Chief, Mike Doi of CAL FIRE. Ron Rusten, South Ops Aviation Coordinator with the U.S. Forest Service added, "It doesn't matter which uniform you're wearing, as the Forest Service, we'll dispatch CAL FIRE resources, including the aircraft."

South Ops is one of 11 Geographic Area Coordination Centers, or GACC's, for the Forest Service, with their area extending from a line around Sacramento to the Mexican border and including eight National Forests. Rusten claimed that South Ops is one of the smaller GACC's in the nation, but that the amount of resources and the amount of fire that they have, is "probably more than a lot of the rest of the nation." 

Another major function of the Southern Operations Center is initial attack aircraft dispatching. They are equipped with a 747, DC-10 and more than 20 helicopters available on a call when needed basis to assist the Forest Service or local agencies. Also available to them is the Martin Mars and many other aircraft at their disposal. "We have 12 air tankers, 9 air attacks and 2 helicopters that are CAL FIRE specific to the southern region," added Battalion Chief Doi. The U.S. Forest Service also has 17 air tankers on contract.

The Southern Operations Center's locations are determined by the National Interagency Coordination Center, or NICC, in Boise, Idaho.

South Ops is one of only two GACC's that dispatch aircraft via radio. Aviation Coordinator Rusten explained, "A lot of them do it by telephone because they don't have as much aircraft as we have down here and they don't get the starts that we get down here."

After the initial attack phase is over, South Ops goes into the coordination efforts with the aircraft, engines and hand crews. During major fires, they may have 20 or 30 people working in the Center, 24 hours a day.

"When the fire goes into extended attack, and obviously they're going to need a large number of resources out there, it's up to the Incident Commander out there to determine the needs of that incident.  As they relay those needs through their dispatch office into here, then we can reach out throughout our GACC, our coordination center, to get those resources," remarked Rusten.

South Ops is also the coordination center for Cal EMA Region VI and direct the movements of those government resources within the region. All of the aviation frequencies on fires in their area are also coordinated by the Center, along with Temporary Flight Restrictions over fires with the FAA.

The Southern Operations Center also has valuable information available on their website including:

•    Incident Information Page - Designed to provide the general public with daily updates on large fires, fire restrictions, and other activity throughout the Geographic Area.

•    Predictive Services Page - Provides the operational products produced by the OSCC and links to outside operational activities.

•    Logistics/Dispatch Page - Provides operational and administrative links to the four functional mobilization desks located in the Center

Contributors to this story:
Barbara Brooks - Video Report
Ann Zevely - Camera/Editor
Renee Marquart - Text Story


Author:B. Brooks, A. Zevely, R. Marquart - FDNNTV.com