OREGON — Dispatchers are often the unseen but critical support personnel for wildland fires. They work long hours and are behind every firefighter, helicopter or engine that responds to the report of a wildfire.

With the Northwest and nation being in Preparedness Level 5, the highest level of wildfire response, dispatchers are working in shifts around the clock to ensure response to fires is timely. From initial attack to long range incidents, they help with it all.

The world of dispatch is a fast paced one, with dispatchers sticking with fires or other incidents from start to finish. Starting a job as a new dispatcher can be a daunting task, due in a large part to longer fire seasons and the pressures of the position. To that end, the Pacific Northwest Region established a Dispatch Academy, to help ease new dispatchers transition into their new roles. The academy is a weeklong course designed to increase consistency in how new dispatchers are trained.

Last month marked the inaugural Northwest Dispatch Academy or ‘Dispatch 101’ as Puget Sound Interagency Center Manager Lorenzo Miranda calls it. Miranda was one of many key members in the creation of course content, working with others in the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Oregon Department of Forestry and Washington Department of Natural Resources.

“The guiding principle for our academy is to give new dispatchers a uniform foundation of an essential education in a controlled environment,” Miranda said. “We all have the same purpose and the same mission, regardless of the agency we work for.”

The long-range goal is the development of standardized national training for beginning, intermediate and advanced dispatchers.

As they work through a challenging 2024 fire season, the training has already made a difference for the students who were able to attend.