USDA Forest Service 

Supplement

to

A Preparedness Guide for 

Firefighters and Their 

Families

April 2020
USDA Forest Service Supplement to A 

Preparedness Guide for Firefighters and 

Their Families

July 2019

Updated April 2020

On July 2, 2019, in coordination with the Week of Remembrance, NWCG released a proof-of-concept 

document A Preparedness Guide for Firefighters and Their Families

(https://www.nwcg.gov/sites/default/files/committee/docs/rmc-preparedness-guide-for-fighters-andtheir-families.pdf). This valuable resource provides honest information, resources for assistance, and 

conversation starters to give you, the firefighter, tools that will be helpful in preparing yourself and your 

family for realities of a career in wildland firefighting. 

The Preparedness Guide has information that is useful to wildland firefighters regardless of agency. 

However, there is additional information specific to the USDA Forest Service that could also prove 

helpful. The intent of this supplement is to provide resources and processes that are specific to our 

agency, including:

• the Employee Assistance Program;

• USDA Forest Service Casualty Assistance Program; and

• post-accident learning reviews.

The unprecedented circumstances of 2020 present new challenges for first responders as we learn how 

to respond to emergencies amidst a global pandemic. Several links to resources about COVID-19 are 

provided in the section “Response to COVID-19.” These resources include general protection measures 

from CDC, as well as NWCG and agency updates specific to our missions.

Feedback will drive the next iteration of A Preparedness Guide for Firefighters and Their Families, 

which is a project of the NWCG Risk Management Committee. USDA Forest Service Employees are 

encouraged to provide feedback to our representative on that committee. A current roster can be found at 

https://www.nwcg.gov/committees/risk-management-committee/roster. 
Table of Contents

Employee Assistance Program................................................................................................... 1

USDA Forest Service Casualty Assistance Program................................................................. 2

USDA Forest Service Actions Following Death or Serious Injury ........................................... 4

Post-Accident Inquiries.............................................................................................................. 6

Response to COVID-19 ............................................................................................................. 8
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Employee Assistance Program

Agency sponsored Employee Assistance Programs provide employees and their 

families with free resources such as counseling. Each USDA Forest Service Region has 

a separate EAP contract and phone number. See the table below to connect with the 

EAP in your region.

USDA Forest Service EAP Vendors

Region 1

EAP # 800-869-0276

Vendor Espyr

http://www.eapconsultants.com/ user: fsregion1

Regions 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 10, WO, Research 

Stations, and IITF

EAP # 800-222-0364

Vendor FOH

http://www.foh4you.com/ 

Region 4

EAP # 1-888-290-4327

Vendor ComPsych

http://fsweb.r4.fs.fed.us/unit/cr/eap/docs/eap_brochure.pdf 

Region 6

EAP # 1-800-869-0276

Vendor Espyr

https://espyr.com/ 

Forest 

Products 

Lab

Link on homepage to EAP pdf brochure

EAP # 1.800.458.1930

Vendor FEI Behavioral Health

http://www.feieap.com user: fsr9
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USDA Forest Service Casualty Assistance Program

It is the intent of the USDA Forest Service to provide immediate assistance and support 

to survivors, families, and coworkers of those who die or are seriously injured in the 

line of duty. 

The Casualty Assistance Program (CAP) focuses on injuries or fatalities that occur 

while employees are performing the USDA Forest Service mission. The CAP website 

contains policy, procedures, training, tools, and resources: http://fsweb.wo.fs.fed.us/cap. 

(Note that this is an internal website accessible by employees. The information may be 

printed for sharing with family members.)

Loved ones and family members may have immediate questions about how the USDA 

Forest Service can assist. Official policy on agency response to death and serious injury 

is detailed in the Forest Service Handbook (FSH) 1309.19. It is publicly available 

online at https://www.fs.fed.us/cgi-bin/Directives/get_dirs/fsh?1309.19

These are some of the more common questions and answers provided by USDA Forest 

Service policy.

Q: Does the USDA Forest Service provide liaison services to the family? 

A: Depending on the circumstance, the Line Officer may assign liaisons to 

assist. These may include hospital liaison, family liaison, or funeral liaison. 

(FSH 1309.19, Chapter 20).

Q: Can the USDA Forest Service pay for family members to travel when a firefighter is 

critically injured?

A: Yes. When an employee is seriously injured while on assignment (including 

while in travel status), or suffers a medical emergency in travel status, 

appropriated funds, on a case-by-case basis, may be used to pay for travel 

expenses of family members. Family members may travel to the location where 

an employee is receiving medical treatment to serve as a non-medical attendant 

or because their presence is required by law during the evaluation or treatment 

of a patient. Dependent family members incapable of self-care may also be 

authorized to travel. (FSH 1309.19, Chapter 30).

Q: Can the USDA Forest Service pay for the family to attend federally sponsored award 

ceremonies or memorial services?

A: Yes, the USDA Forest Service may pay travel expenses for one family 

representative to receive the award. Families of deceased employees may not 

travel at government expense to attend private award ceremonies, memorial 

services, or other functions not federally sponsored (FSH 1309.19, Chapter 60).

Q: Does the USDA Forest Service pay for any death benefits? 

A: Public Law 104-208, Section 651 (codified as a note to 5 USC 8133 and 

8134), authorizes agencies to pay up to $10,000 in burial costs and related 

expenses, as a death gratuity to the personal representative of any employee who 
USDA Forest Service Supplement to “A Preparedness Guide for Firefighters and Their Families”

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dies in the line of duty. This payment is authorized by Albuquerque Service 

Center-Human Resources Management/Workers Compensation Branch only 

when the worker’s compensation claim is adjudicated and accepted by the 

Department of Labor. (FSH 1309.19, Chapter 40).
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USDA Forest Service Actions Following Death or Serious Injury

What happens now?

Unexpected serious injury or death invokes a unique set of emotional challenges and 

responses. The injured and their families face numerous hurdles through treatment and 

recovery. Survivors are left with a sense of unreality, helplessness, and unfinished 

business; they want to understand what happened and try to bring some meaning to their 

loss.

Liaisons

In the event of a serious injury or line of duty death, the Line Officer may assign Family 

or Hospital Liaisons to assist the victim and/or the family. The Liaison represents the 

agency, provides support, and helps guide the family through the maze of emotional 

decisions that need to be made. Liaisons bring solace, a calm presence, and compassion 

to an otherwise turbulent situation.

Specifically, the Hospital Liaison facilitates communication between the employee, 

family, Human Resources Management, the medical treatment facility, home unit, and 

the Incident Comp/Claims Specialist if the injury occurred on an incident. The Hospital 

Liaison may also coordinate patient transportation and other needs.

The Family Liaison provides support and agency connection to the family of a deceased 

employee and facilitates communication between the family and agency officials. The 

Family Liaison is a facilitator, not a decision maker.

Actions in the first 24 hours

The agency can also initiate actions in the best interest of the family that may or may 

not directly involve the family but are critical to managing the incident. 

In the first 24 hours, the agency may

• assign an on-scene coordinator to manage the overall incident and immediate 

medical care 

• protect the scene and gather factual information;

• notify the immediate family or next of kin, and law enforcement officials;

• provide support and care to the immediate family; 

• protect and care for others who were involved with or witnessed the incident;

• assign public affairs to manage communication needs and protect the victim’s 

identity until formal notification has been made;

• notify agency officials including the local line officer, immediate supervisor, 

and home unit;

• assign hospital or family liaison;

• notify appropriate jurisdictional authorities and/or partner agencies;

• notify Albuquerque Service Center - Human Resource Management/Workers 
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Compensation; 

• request a benefits coordinator and workers compensation coordinator;

• notify Albuquerque Service Center - Travel to initiate a travel request for the 

injured employee and/or family members;

• contact regional critical incident stress coordinator to initiate a Critical Incident 

Stress Management team;

• assign, activate, and dispatch a Facilitated Learning Analysis team; 

• assign, activate, and dispatch a Coordinated Response Protocol team; and

• determine the need for an Incident Management Team, based on the complexity 

of the incident.

Actions beyond 24 hours

Beyond 24 hours, the agency may

• order a Care Team to assist the affected unit in the development of a strategic 

response to death and /or serious injury, coordinate administrative activities, and 

minimize the unit’s workload;

• coordinate with the Hospital Liaison to ensure the needs of the injured and their 

family are being met in accordance with agency policy and procedure;

• coordinate with the Family Liaison to learn the family’s preference regarding 

the Memorial Service and attendance by Forest Service, Federal, State and local 

personnel dignitaries; 

• address the immediate and long-term needs of affected fellow employees; 

• assign personnel to assist the CRP, FLA, Office of Inspector General (OIG), 

Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and other investigation teams; 

and 

• return personal property to the employee or family as soon as items have been 

released by agency officials.
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Post-Accident Inquiries

There are two main types of accident reviews used by the USDA Forest Service:

Facilitated Learning Analysis (FLA), and Critical Response Protocol (CRP).

The Facilitated Learning Analysis (FLA) is used on incidents as well as program 

reviews and is most common on fireline accidents involving serious injuries or 

fatalities. It is intended to provide organizational learning and not fault-finding. Learn 

more on the FLA Implementation Guide website:

https://www.wildfirelessons.net/viewdocument/facilitated-learning-analysis-imple-1 .

The Critical Response Protocol (CRP) is an agency-level investigation that typically 

occurs with fatalities or burn-overs involving multiple people. It is the process the 

USDA Forest Service uses to learn from tragic events. The CRP uses pre-trained 

response team members who work collaboratively to try to learn as much as possible 

from the tragedy while minimizing further harm to our employees to the extent possible.

It is designed for incidents involving on-duty employees that include a fatality or more 

than three hospitalizations.

Although efforts are made to minimize impacts to people involved in traumatic 

situations, employees may be interviewed more than once and for more than one 

type of inquiry. Different types of reviews, such as fire cause determinations, 

criminal or civil investigations, and learning reviews, are intentionally kept 

separate.

The CRP process actively seeks to minimize the number of interviews to which our 

personnel are exposed and to control access to our employees. The CRP

• synchronizes all internal agency response groups, including the Learning 

Review Team, Peer Support/Critical Incident Stress Management, Law 

Enforcement and Investigations, Union, Communications, and Human Resource 

Management.

• makes every effort to coordinate external investigations, such as those required 

by Occupational Safety and Health Administration, National Institute for 

Occupational Safety and Heath, Office of Inspector General, state and local law 

enforcement, coroner’s offices, and other cooperators and partners.

• includes a Learning Review (LR) that replaces the Serious Accident 

Investigation process. The Learning Review collects information to help build 

individual and organizational products to support our ability to learn from the 

event.

• seeks a minimal impact investigation. When accidents happen, our 

organization’s response affects both employee morale and our future safety. We 

must learn everything we can from those events to prevent recurrence. We want 

to minimize impacts to survivors and witnesses while managing required 

investigation activities.

• was developed by safety experts. The Human Performance and Innovation and 

Organizational Learning Research, Development, and Applications (RD&A) 

unit and the Office of Safety and Occupational Health oversaw the development 
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of this process. Input was gathered from numerous safety experts within the 

Forest Service as well as external academics.

Learn more about the CRP process at the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center 

Web site (https://www.wildfirelessons.net/home), or the Office of Safety and Health 

SharePoint site (https://ems-portal.usda.gov/sites/fsosoh/Documents/CRP%20Information%20Sheet%2019May2014.pdf CRP 

Information Sheet).
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Response to COVID-19

The USDA Forest Service is following USDA and CDC public health guidance as we 

continue to offer services to the public. There are three official, government-wide 

sources of up-to-date information about the coronavirus: 

https://www.coronavirus.gov/

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-

ncov/index.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%

2Findex.html

https://www.usa.gov/coronavirus

Agency information

For answers to agency-specific frequently asked questions, visit

https://www.fs.usda.gov/about-agency/covid19-updates .

USDA Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen is providing updates via Inside the 

Forest Service: https://www.fs.usda.gov/inside-fs/leadership/coronavirus-heres-whatknow

A post specifically related to the 2020 fire year amidst COVID-19 can be found here: 

https://www.fs.usda.gov/inside-fs/leadership/2020-fire-year-managing-risk-pandemic

NWCG-Infectious Disease Guidance for Wildland Fire Incidents, Emergency 

Medical Committee

https://www.nwcg.gov/committees/emergency-medical-committee/infectious-diseaseguidance

Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center: COVID-19 and Fire Season 2020

The Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center is hosting a discussion forum which serves 

as a platform to ask questions, as well as to share ideas, information, and solutions. Join 

the discussion at https://www.wildfirelessons.net/communities/communityhome?communitykey=fb4f4902-3a9e-4d11-9a68-7e9d81e159de&tab=groupdetails .

Reduce stress in yourself and others

Sharing the facts and reducing rumors can make this outbreak less stressful. When you 

share accurate information about COVID-19 you can help people feel less stressed and 

allow you to connect with them. Learn more at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-

ncov/daily-life-coping/sharefacts.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F201

9-ncov%2Fsymptoms-testing%2Fshare-facts.html

Learn more about taking care of your emotional health at 

https://emergency.cdc.gov/coping/selfcare.asp

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration

People with preexisting mental health conditions should continue with their treatment 

and be aware of new or worsening symptoms. Additional information can be found at 

the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website:

https://www.samhsa.gov/disaster-preparedness.
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Taking care of yourself, your friends, and your family can help you cope with stress. 

Helping others cope with their stress can also make your community stronger.

A reminder for all external communications

If you are contacted by media (newspaper, television, online blog, podcast), before 

speaking to them, please follow these protocols:

Media: send all media inquiries about COVID-19 to your Forest or Regional PAO. 

Forest PAOs will work with the Regional PAO and the press office at the WO.

Social media: All COVID-19 related social media and web posts must be cleared 

through USDA’s Office of Communications. Please follow the protocol for media 

inquiries.

Congressional/Intergovernmental: If you receive an inquiry from congressional staff at 

any level (local, state, or DC offices) regarding the Forest Service’s response to 

COVID-19, please forward it to FAM Legislative Affairs representative, Jake Donnay 

at Jacob.donnay@usda.gov.