Legislative declaration

(1) The general assembly hereby finds, determines, and declares that: (a) Wildland fires, especially fires occurring in wildland-urban interface areas, pose a serious threat to life, property, critical infrastructure, and the environment; (b) A systematic, proactive approach to the management of wildland fire incidents, regardless of cause, size, location, or complexity, is needed in order to protect life, property, critical infrastructure, and the environment; (c) The national incident management system provides a consistent, nationwide template enabling federal, state, tribal, and local governments, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations to work together to prepare for, prevent, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of all incidents regardless of type, cause, size, location, or complexity, and should be the foundation for the management of wildland fire incidents; (d) The development of a county wildland fire plan, in cooperation among the sheriff, the fire chiefs, and the board of county commissioners of the county and based on the resource capabilities specific to the county, will assist in clarifying the roles and responsibilities of local emergency response agencies, in the management of wildland fire incidents and, for these reasons, the development of such a plan is encouraged; (e) Many of the elements of a county wildland fire plan may already exist in community wildfire protection plans, other county fire plans, county all-hazards preparedness plans, or annual operating plans, and these elements should be brought together, in cooperation between the sheriff and the fire chiefs of the county, into a county wildland fire plan; and (f) The provisions of this article are intended to clarify and identify specific state and local roles, responsibilities, and authorities for managing prairie, forest, or wildland fire incidents that range from the small scale local to large scale multi-jurisdictional or catastrophic fires in order to protect life, property, critical infrastructure, and the environment.