(Washington, D.C., July 14, 2025) – Saturday, the National Multi-Agency Coordination Group (NMAC), composed of wildland fire representatives from each wildland fire agency based at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho, raised the national fire preparedness level one step higher to Preparedness Level 4.
“We are in peak fire season and are rightfully raising the preparedness level to ensure we are protecting our public lands and communities from devastating fires. President Trump, Secretary Burgum, and our State, local, and Tribal partners are prepared to respond,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins. “At USDA we are not simply waiting for fire season. We have instituted a series of federal actions and partnerships to properly manage national forestlands. For too long, environmental activists have tied the hands of our public servants from actively managing our forests – and even blocking simple road construction so fire vehicles, apparatus, and staff can get to wildfires and put them out before they destroy homes and communities. We have begun the process to rescind the failed roadless rule to fix this with common sense policies and have declared a national forest emergency so we can clear out dangerous fuel and protect our forests for the future.”
Secretary Rollins has made it a top priority for the Department to ensure the entire agency is geared to respond to what is already an above normal summer fire season. We are providing the resources needed to ensure the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has the strongest and most prepared wildland firefighting force in the world.
As of July 14, the USFS has hired 99% of its 11,300-firefighter hiring target, with full staffing anticipated next week. This is ahead of where the agency has been in previous years. The USFS fire workforce is fully operational for this fire season.
Preparedness levels are dictated by fuel and weather conditions, fire activity, and fire suppression resource availability throughout the country. The five preparedness levels range from the lowest (1) to the highest (5). Each one includes specific management actions and involves increasing levels of interagency resource commitments. As preparedness levels rise, so does the need for incident management teams and suppression resources, which include wildland fire crews, engines, support personnel, helicopters, airtankers and other aircraft, and specialized heavy equipment, such as bulldozers.
The public plays a valuable role in preventing wildfires – as you enjoy the outdoors this summer, please enjoy the outdoors responsibly, stay vigilant, and make sure we aren’t unnecessarily putting our firefighters in harms way. For more information, please visit the NIFC webpage.
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