1998 Survey Findings: Wildfire Equipment Development Priority Needs, 0051-2856-MTDC

Earlier, we pointed out that the survey was guided by two general questions. First, what fire equipment development priority needs exist today in the interagency firefighting community in the United States? Although we refer to the top-20 priority equipment items, the list actually has 23 items, because of a tie among four items at the 20 cutoff point (Table 3).

Table 3—Top-20 fire equipment development needs in 1998 rated Need or Must have.

Rank	Percent Responding	Fire equipment item	Total	Percent
1 Tie	72	Reducing dead spots in radio communication.	1,660	96
	72	Improve communication with dozer operator.	1,605	93
2 Tie	70	Improve goggles with scratch-resistant lenses that do not fog and are comfortable.
	70	Improve compatibility of communication equipment between agencies.	1,165	96
3	64	Improve fire weather information dissemination.	1,651	95
4	63	Increase protection of the dozer operator from smoke and dust.
5 Tie	61	Improve low-heat-stress fire protective clothing.	1,671	97
	61	Improve microwave links to support isolated incidents and link them to dispatch.
	61	Improve use of fire weather data.	1,641	95
	61	Improve forest fire shelters.	1,678	97
6	60	Establish adequate common command channels to all agencies.	1,662	96
7 Tie	59	Improve adequacy of handheld communication system.	1,670	96
	59	Develop maps marked off with latitude and longitude grids.	1,664	96
	59	Improve lightweight hose, with rugged characteristics of cotton-jacketed hose.	1,611	93
8	54	Improve GPS procedures for identification of individual location and situation mapping.
9 Tie	53	Improve single-unit headlamps.	1,684	97
	53	Improve devices to protect face, ears, and neck from radiant heat and falling embers without heat stress.	1,679	98
10 Tie	52	Develop standardized engines among agencies.	1,626	94
	52	Develop an integrated fire camp electrical system, including a quiet, efficient central generator and safe wiring system to fill fire camp electrical needs.	1,651	95
11 Tie	51	Improve dissemination of information on the study of fine particulate hazard (less than 10 microns) to firefighters.	1,677	97
	51	Improve dissemination of information on the significance of CO health hazards and how to minimize exposure.
	51	Design items so they can be easily recycled.	1,629	94
	51	Improve fire-resistant clothing and gear for cold-weather wildland firefighting.	1,676	97

Different kinds of equipment items were grouped into 15 categories in the questionnaire. The breakdown of the number of top-20 equipment priorities grouped by these categories is shown in Table 4. The findings in Tables 3 and 4 clearly show equipment development for firefighting personnel received the greatest number of high-priority items. This category was followed closely in priority by equipment to improve communication and information sharing. In fact, if the categories of communication and information collection/evaluation are combined, this would be the top-priority development need. The fact that many categories of equipment did not receive a single top-20 item may reflect the arbitrary classification of items into these categories. The categories were primarily constructed to help format and analyze the questionnaire data.

Category of equipment	Number in top 20
Personnel	8
Communication	6
Information collection/evaluation	4
Logistics	2
Dozer/tractor plow	1
Engines/water tenders	1
Water-handling equipment	1
Aerial operations	0
Foam application	0
Line construction/mopup	0
Transportation	0
Dispatching	0
Prevention	0
Fuels management	0