Interview with IC Jeanne Pinch-Tulley...

July 19, 2008 about 10:30 pm...

Be sure to look for what should be a very interesting and important interview with new IC Jeanne Pincha-Tulley, commander of California Interagency Incident Management Team 3, that I'll be doing tomorrow (Sunday) morning at 9:00 am and subsequently available here on the 'blog and at KUSP's website. I expect that KUSP will dedicate some airtime to the IC's comments, as well.

I'll not be able to post-produce and upload the audio until about noon tomorrow, so don't expect to hear it before then; but, the Unified Command does have a message to get out.

Over the next day or so, tactics will be such - conditions permitting - that the firefighters will be hitting the Miller Mountain area, and surrounding areas, hard. This will create a lot of smoke and helicopter activity which could be very upsetting to residents if they don't know what's happening in advance. Heck, it could be upsetting even if you KNOW what's happening in advance!

The IC wants to make sure that residents are aware of what's going on... and that is, that they are intending to fight the fire on the firefighters terms, and ultimately get this thing contained and put to bed once and for all, as soon as feasible.

So, stand by, and we'll have the latest information from the IC herself right here on Life in the Fire Lane and KUSP.

Chief Pincha-Tulley lives in Grass Valley, California. In 1978, while working as a seasonal firefighter on the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest crew, she concurrently studied for her degree in Forest Management from the University of Washington. Ms. Pincha-Tulley worked her way "up the ladder" (no pun intended!), working in five different national forests in three states. In 1986, she began serving on incident command teams, working on fires all over the contiguous 48 states and Alaska. Jeanne became an incident commander three years ago. She is the first and only female IC in the country; and, she has a reputation as an excellent communicator with communities subject to the incidents she manages.