Montana/Dakotas--Billings Field Office
Billings Fire Cache
The Billings Fire Cache (BFK), located in Billings, Montana, is a Local Area Interagency Support Cache operating in association with the Northern Rockies Cache System. The BFK strives for excellence in quality of products and services. The cache stores enough supplies and equipment for a force of 750 firefighters at one time without restocking from outside resources within the National Cache System. The normal complement includes six mobile cache support vans, NFES 82069 ready for shipment. Over the past 10 years, the average support level has been for a force of 2,600 firefighters. Resources may be limited during high fire activity while being re-supplied. Our mission is to provide logistical support in response to wildland fire and all risk emergency incidents for the East Zone Northern Rockies Region with interagency cooperation in the sharing of resources within the zone, region, and on a national scale. The zone stretches 725 air miles from Livingston, Montana, to Fargo, North Dakota, and 300 air miles from Sheridan, Wyoming, to the Canadian border. This is an area of 217,188 square miles and is nearly the size of Texas. The BFK is financed using normal funding procedures through the Bureau of Indian Affairs Rocky Mountain Regional Office and BLM Montana State Office. These agencies also provide space, personnel, equipment, and initial stocking with a fifty-fifty cost share plan that is reviewed and signed annually, based on an operation plan and budget review. The cache receives direction from the Interagency Board of Directors consisting of the fire management officers from the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Forest Service, and State of Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. |
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