Turn Your Equipment Into Opportunity: Wildfire Vendor Prep
Perhaps for many of you with the holidays behind us and a new year upon us, it’s time to tighten the belt and focus on your business goals for the next 12 months. One opportunity which comes around every winter is for vendors who can support wildfire response efforts. The US Forest Service and CAL FIRE manage about 51 million acres of land in California and both agencies play crucial roles in responding to wildfires that break out in these regions. They often coordinate their efforts for larger fires, but you should think of them as two separate entities with different processes for vendors to get involved.
Here’s where you come in.
Both the US Forest Service and CAL FIRE utilize private market personnel and equipment to augment wildfire response efforts. This could be anything from excavators, chippers and chainsaws to tree-falling teams, water trucks, and even consumer-level pickup trucks. If you think you or your company have some equipment that may be useful and you want to hire it out during the summer months on an as-needed basis, then VIPR and the CAL FIRE Hired Equipment Program may be right for you. The USFS VIPR program and CAL FIRE’s Hired Equipment Program both accept new vendors only in a certain period in the winter. The agreements vendors sign, however, can last years. If you’d like to work with one or both of these programs, then you need to start preparing now.
US Forest Service’s VIPR
The Forest Service system is called VIPR – Virtual Incident Procurement. They accept new applications from vendors typically around February or March. If your application is accepted, then you will be signed up for an I-BPA (Incident Blanket Purchase Agreement) and you may get a call for work if there’s a wildfire that requires your equipment. The likelihood of getting a call depends on whether there are fires near your chosen region and what your ranking is on the Dispatch Priority List.
Generally, the cheaper you bid a resource, the higher it will rank and the more likely you are to get work.
2025 is a special year for VIPR. Every year the USFS opens different equipment categories for new solicitations, and usually some categories are closed. But this year every category will be open in one form or another. That’s because every resource category that is not being solicited at the beginning of its cycle will have an “onboarding” option. This means vendors can get on a solicitation in the middle of the 5-year cycle rather than waiting years for it to re-opened. This new process started in 2023 and is just coming to fruition now.
Once you’re on a new solicitation I-BPA then you’re on the list for five years unless you get removed for some reason. For those categories that are onboarded this year, it depends on when it was first opened; you’d be looking at either 3 or 4 years left on those solicitation cycles.
What to prepare ahead of time:
- Apply for our services – we can help with every step!
- Verify that your equipment is being solicited and you can abide by the requirements. Read here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/business/incident/static/eera/IBPA%20National%20Contracting%20Catalog.pdf
- Complete your SAM registration and receive you CAGE code from the DLA: https://sam.gov/
- Set up for your VIPR profile and take the required photos of your equipment. Start here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/business/incident/vendorapp.php?tab=tab_d
- Research what you want to bid for your equipment – use the online databases to see what others have priced in the past and determine what it would cost you to participate in a wildfire incident.
CAL FIRE’s Hired Equipment Program
As mentioned, CAL FIRE has a separate process to utilize private wildfire support resources called the Hired Equipment Program. If your application is accepted, then you’ll be signed up for an EERA – an Emergency Equipment Rental Agreement. Like VIPR, they draw on companies to provide their own equipment and personnel for wildfire response efforts, they only open for applications once per year in the winter, and an accepted application is not a guarantee of work.
Unlike VIPR, however, the applications have a set schedule for their due date (typically due March 31st every year); they work on a three-year cycle instead of five; they do not rotate equipment categories each year; and CAL FIRE determines what they’ll pay for each type of equipment, which excludes the need for you to determine pricing or submit a bid. Generally, CAL FIRE has more restrictive equipment and insurance requirements as well.
There are many of other differences so it’s best not to think of VIPR and CAL FIRE’s Hired Equipment Program as being too similar. However, vendors can get their equipment on both agencies’ agreements, maximizing their likelihood of getting called for a wildfire job.
You can find all equipment categories – and much more – in the CAL FIRE Hired Equipment Program Supplier Participation Manual. Find it here: https://www.fire.ca.gov/about/resources/hired-equipment
What to prepare ahead of time:
- Review the participation manual in detail and verify that your equipment is being solicited, satisfies their requirements, has sufficient insurance, and can generally abide by their program requirements.
- Get your Unique Entity ID (UEI) at SAM.gov: CAL FIRE doesn’t require a completed SAM registration with the Federal government, but they do require you to complete the first step of a SAM registration which is to “validate” your business and receive a UEI.
- Register as a vendor with the California State government at Cal eProcure: https://caleprocure.ca.gov/pages/index.aspx
- If you’re eligible, certify as a Small Business (SB) or Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE) on Cal eProcure.
- Reach out to your local Hired Equipment Coordinator to coordinate next steps. Don’t go through the process of gathering the documents you’ll need until you speak with them first: https://www.fire.ca.gov/about/resources/hired-equipment
- Working with the local Coordinator, you will gather the documents required for an application for EERA. See checklist under “More Information” here: https://www.fire.ca.gov/about/resources/hired-equipment
Whether you want to work with CAL FIRE or the USFS or both, now is the time to get prepared! You don’t have to go it alone though. We at Norcal APEX Accelerator have helped plenty of clients put their equipment to good use working on wildfires over the last decade the years and we’d be happy to help you as well.
If you require any assistance with either application or want additional questions answered, please register for our upcoming webinar, contact your Norcal APEX Accelerator counselor for assistance, or apply for services today!
Authored by: James Forrest, Norcal APEX Accelerator Procurement Specialist
If you have more questions, please contact us at info@apexnorcal.org or (707) 267 – 7561
