Department of Interior Wildfire Management - Preparedness

Climate change is driving the devastating intersection of extreme heat, drought, and wildland fire danger across the United States, creating wildfires that move with a speed and intensity previously unseen. This has created conditions in which wildfires overwhelm response capabilities, resulting in billions of dollars in economic losses, damage to natural resources, devastation to communities, and the tragic loss of human life. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, more commonly known as Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), enacted in November 2021, is bringing much-needed support to communities across the country to increase the resilience of lands facing the threat of wildland fires and to better support federal wildland firefighter. The BIL provides funding and authorizes the Department of the Interior (DOI) to develop and implement a pilot program to provide local governments financial assistance to acquire slip-on tanker units to establish fleets of vehicles that can be quickly converted to be operated as fire engines.