Great Basin Team 5 Social Media & Photo/Video Use Sample Only

Public & Official Use of Wildland Fire Photos/ 

Video

Firefighters: With the ability to transmit information 

and images across the globe instantaneously, it has 

never been more important for firefighters to conduct 

themselves professionally both on and off duty. 

Activities that distract from firefighters’ situational 

awareness may place them in danger or threaten the 

safety of others working around them. A picture is not 

worth the risk of losing situational awareness. Team 5 

trusts the judgments of firefighters and empowers 

them to take responsibility for their own actions, 

recognizing they are the best ones to determine when a 

safe and appropriate time is to take photos / videos. 

Pictures/ video help information officers tell the story 

of what is taking place on an incident. Information 

officers have traditionally depended on assistance from 

Team members and line personnel to provide them 

with photos and videos to help them tell the incident 

story. To facilitate this relationship, Team 5 

encourages photos and video footage taken during the 

incident be shared with the information officer to be 

used as appropriate.

Team 5’s Facebook &Other Social Media Pages

Team 5 maintains a Facebook and Twitter page. The 

intended audiences for those tools are team members, 

firefighter families, and the wildland fire management 

community. 

• Incident Information may be shared from an 

official information source (Agency or Incident 

Facebook page) to the Team’s FB page, but the 

Team’s FB page should not be used to provide the 

incident information during an incident. 

• Pictures related to Team 5 may be sent to the 

Team’s Information Officer. If appropriate, the 

Information Officers will post pictures and team 

information to the Team’s sites with a credit line 

to give photo recognition. 

• When Lead Information Officers transition, social 

media account information will be transferred to 

the next Lead PIO to ensure continuity and 

consistency. 

Personal Use of Wildland Fire Incident Photos/ 

videos

Firefighters and other personnel may post information, 

photos, or videos about work-related activities on 

personal social media accounts or websites outside of 

work hours. However, firefighters must be mindful of

posting work-related information or activities on their 

personal social media accounts or websites. These 

activities reflect on the professionalism of their crew, 

the Team, and the overall reputation of the wildland 

firefighting community. 

ALL fire personnel employed by the incident will 

follow these principles when using social media, cell 

phones, texts and other communication services in a 

non-official/personal capacity:

• Individuals will NOT discuss any agency or 

bureau related information on Facebook or 

other social media venues, including cell phones 

and text messages, that is not already considered 

public information. This is especially important 

when internal incident within an incident 

information is available. The discussion or sharing 

of such information outside the incident via social 

media, phone calls, texts or other means is strictly 

prohibited until it becomes public information. 

Failure to comply may result in disciplinary action.

• If you identify yourself as a wildland firefighter 

or have a public facing position for which your 

association is known to the general public, 

ensure your profile and related content (even if 

it is of a personal and not an official nature) is 

consistent with how you wish to present yourself 

as a professional, appropriate with the public 

trust associated with your position. Pictures that 

violate safety standards or reflect poorly on the 

wildland fire community hurt not only your 

reputation, but all firefighters since the general 

public does not see agency affiliations. 

• When in doubt, stop. If a firefighter has a 

question about a photo taken on the incident he or 

she wishes to post when off duty, please discuss it 

with Fire Information personnel. Remember, it is 

the responsibility of every firefighter to maintain 

the entire organization’s reputation, regardless of 

agency or entity.