Northwest COMPACT

Pembina Wildfire Complex in Alberta Canada 2023
Pembina Wildfire Complex in Alberta Canada 2023

The Northwest Compact

The Northwest Fire Fighting Compact (NW Compact) is one of eight forest fire fighting Compacts operating across North America. Compact members include wildland fire agencies in the U.S. States and Canadian Provinces. Within each compact, fire fighting resources and personnel can be deployed efficiently and quickly to suppress wildfires.

The NW Compact was created to facilitate assistance in wildland fire pre-suppression and suppression between the member agencies in the northwestern region of North America. Member agencies include the U.S. States of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana as well as the Canadian Provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and the Yukon and Northwest Territories. In 2024, the NW Compact welcomes Hawaii as its newest member. Aloha, e komo mai !

1998

NW Compact
Established

25

Years of NW Compact
Support through 2023

11

NW Compact Member
States and Provinces

8

Firefighting Compacts
in North America

Agency Contacts

Member Agency Contacts

Member-agency contact addresses, emails, and phone numbers..

Document archive including founding laws, current operating plans and administrative procedures. Access to the member-agency collaborative document workspace.

Links to agency briefings and orientations for incoming firefighters. Includes links to fire environment information like fire danger rating systems and other intel.

Featured Websites

Wildfire Today

Articles tagged with “Fire Compact” on the website “Wildfire Today.”

Fighting Invasive aquatic species on a “super scooper” on loan to Montana from Saskatchewan in 2017.

Member Collaborative

Collaborate and Share Documents

Direct access to the members-only collaborative document workspace.

2023 WaDNR Strike Team Inbrief in Alberta

“During a late season fire in October of 2022, an east wind event in southwestern Washington caused a fire to grow from 156 to 1500 acres in a 24 hour period, forcing the evacuations affecting over thirty six thousand (36,000) homes.

Because of our partnership with Oregon Department of Forestry formalized in the NW Fire Protection Agreement, we were able to rapidly receive ODF IMT 2 (IC Howard) to help manage the incident, when the other Type 2 and 1 IMTs typically relied upon were listed as unavailable at the NW Geographic Area Coordination Center.

The ability to surge resources between U.S. States and Canadian Provinces in the Northwest maximizes our suppression response capabilities collectively.”

David Way
Assistant Division Manager for Operations
Wildland Fire Management Division
Washington State Department of Natural Resources

Photo courtesy Brian Looper.