Initial Attack Assessment

The Initial Attack Assessment Index (IAA) section is an output calculated for each fire spread prediction. Initial Attack is the action taken by the first resources to arrive at a wildfire incident. Initial actions may be size up, patrolling, monitoring, holding action, or aggressive Initial Attack (NWCG, 2014).

The IAA model provides an estimation of the difficulty of fire control in the first 1-2 hours after the ignition time. It is a qualitative index ranging from 1 (low difficulty) to 5 (extreme). Although IAA gives a quick approximation of the suppression difficulty of every single fire, note that the index is not valid for longer fire durations than 2 hours (i.e., when the fire is not contained in the initial attack). This index is not recommended to estimate suppression difficulty in an Extended Attack Assessment (EAA).