NIFC – A Place A Mission

In the Beginning

NIFC got its start in the mid-1960s, when the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, 

Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service and Department of Commerce’s Weather Bureau (now the 

National Weather Service) pooled their fire resources to form the Boise Interagency Fire Center, or BIFC. 

Subsequently, the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service and Fish 

and Wildlife Service joined the Center. Today, the National Association of State Foresters and Federal 

Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also have representation at NIFC. In 1993, the name was 

changed from BIFC to the National Interagency Fire Center, to reflect the center’s national mission. NIFC 

is still located in Boise, Idaho, where the partner agencies employ about 600 people. 

The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) is the nation’s logistical and support center for wildland fire 

and, sometimes, national emergencies. NIFC is the place where state, federal and tribal agencies work 

together to get fire personnel, aircraft, supplies, and equipment from anywhere in the country to where 

they are needed the most.

NIFC doesn’t fight fires. That work is the responsibility of local, federal, state, tribal, and community 

agencies. NIFC’s primary mission is to provide cooperative leadership, technical expertise, people and 

equipment for national and international wildland fire management and emergency assistance. 

NIFC, then, is a place with a mission -- to ensure that wildland firefighters everywhere have the support 

and information they need to be safe, effective and efficient. 

When Fires Burn

Wildfire suppression is built on a three-tiered system of support – the local area, one of the 11 

geographic areas (see map at left), and finally, the national level. When a fire is reported, the local 

agency and its firefighting partners respond. If the fire continues to grow, the agency can ask for help 

from its geographic area. When a geographic area has exhausted all its resources, it can turn to NIFC’s 

National Interagency Coordination Center for help in locating what is needed, from air tankers to radios 

to firefighting crews to incident management teams. 

ALSO AT NIFC

Other services and programs include:

Infrared mapping services

National Interagency Coordination Center

Remote Automatic Weather Station headquarters

Fire meteorology and predictive services
Radio and communication cache

Fire intelligence and information

Joint Fire Science Program 

Equipment development

Training development

BLM Boise smokejumper base

Great Basin fire cache

Boise National Forest air tanker base

NATIONAL MULTI-AGENCY COORDINATION GROUP 

When the national fire situation becomes severe, the National Multi-Agency Coordination Group 

(NMAC) is activated. It identifies national needs and issues, and sets priorities for allocation of 

resources. NMAC is composed of the fire directors of each agency, representatives from FEMA and the 

states, plus technical specialists as needed. 

The agencies at NIFC do more than respond to wildfire. Often, they are asked to support natural 

disasters and emergencies in conjunction with FEMA. Through the US Department of State’s Office of 

Foreign Disaster Assistance, and international agreements, NIFC can help with incidents in other 

countries as well.

NIFC – ACROSS THE COUNTRY, AROUND THE WORLD

WILDLAND FIRE – A NATURAL PROCESS

In simplest terms, fire is a chemical reaction among oxygen, heat and fuel. Fire has shaped much of the 

landscape as it is today and will continue to do so in the future. NIFC will be a part of wildland fire’s 

future, helping to manage and better understand this vital, primitive force. 

Visit NIFC’s website at www.nifc.gov 

You may also get information by writing to:

National Interagency Fire Center

3833 S. Development Avenue

Boise, Idaho 83705

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