National Interagency Fire Center

The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho, is the physical facility that is home to the National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC), and the National Multi-Agency Coordination group (NMAC or MAC).

The center works closely with and is an arm of the National Fire and Aviation Executive Board (NFAEB), which provides unified guidance for fire agencies in the United States, and handbooks and guidelines to provide common procedures. It was created to implement the Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy. The NFAEB has created the Federal Fire Policy Directives Task Group, which coordinates with state agencies in order to implement cooperative agreements.

The center's mission is the complex interagency co-ordination of wildland firefighting resources in the United States. Although NIFC was founded to manage firefighting resources throughout the western states, the center is now designated as an "all-risk" co-ordination center and thus provides support in response to other emergencies such as floods, hurricanes and earthquakes for the entire United States. It also contributes to the National preparedness level.

What became the National Interagency Fire Center began in 1965 as the Boise Interagency Fire Center. The Center's name was changed in 1993 to more accurately reflect its national mission.

Originally the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and National Weather Service saw the need to work together to reduce service duplication, cut costs, and coordinate national fire planning and operations. The National Park Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs joined BIFC in the mid 1970s. The US Fish and Wildlife Service joined in 1979.

The Wildland Firefighters National Monument, which was dedicated on May 25, 2000, stands on the grounds of the NIFC's headquarters in Boise.

A wildland fire is initially managed by the local agency that has fire protection responsibility for that area. Engines, ground crews, hotshots, smokejumpers, helicopters with water buckets, and airtankers may all be used for initial suppression. Various local agencies may work together, sharing personnel and equipment, to fight both new fires and those not contained by the initial response.

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