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Not everyone assigned to a fire spends time on the fireline, swinging tools and driving engines. It takes a tremendous amount of support to pull off all the logistics, planning, and implementation of a suppression fire. Without the proper method to purchase supplies and pay the people who implement the work, the whole process would break down. Because of this, the finance unit is a critical section of an incident management team.

The costs associated with an incident can range from bottled water and food to heavy equipment and the fuel they need. The Spring Creek Fire has over 500 personnel that need to stay hydrated, eat, and be supplied with the correct equipment to perform their job. It's the finance unit’s responsibility to track these costs and report them. It’s an entire operation of its own to accurately and efficiently document estimated costs. As our Incident Commander said at this morning's briefing, it takes a village to manage a fire.