Availability is the second greatest concern.
For the past few years, NWCG has been discussing the length of fire assignments to determine if a change should be made to the current 21-day policy. No consensus has been reached due to a lack of good information on the impact of assignment length on firefighter safety and availability. Adequate studies to get this information may take three or more years. NWCG members agree that we must make a call on this issue, at least in the interim, until better information is available. Safety concerns are the most commonly raised issue when discussing assignment length.