ASI Arden Solutions, Inc.

09/08/2026

Packed up and ready for the next one 🚁 Our crew getting ready to fly out of the Silver Fire after another assignment in the books.

Safe travels, crew — and another job well done!

09/04/2026

National Fire News: September 4, 2026. Yesterday, 92 new fires were reported nationwide, including three new large fires. Firefighters are currently working to contain 77 large fires, with 18,401 firefighters and support personnel assigned to incidents nationwide.

Due to improving fire weather conditions across multiple geographic areas, increased availability of most nationally shared resource types, and a significant decline in resource ordering through the National Interagency Coordination Center, the National Preparedness Level decreased to four (PL 4), effective September 4 at 7:30 a.m. MDT, after 48 consecutive days at national PL 5.

The National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group (NMAC), composed of wildland fire representatives from each agency at NIFC, establishes the national preparedness level. Factors they consider include number of IMTs committed, total number of resources committed, how many large fires are burning, how many geographic areas have activity, and the time of year, plus any unusual circumstances identified by this group of seasoned fire managers. Explore PL information: https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information

More NFN: https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information

📷Little Giant Fire (Donavan Smith), InciWeb

09/03/2026

Views from the Grand Park 2 Fire 🌲

Our NCC 12A crew working around Sun Top Lookout on the northern slopes of Mt. Rainier.
Beautiful country and some incredible views while getting the job done.

09/01/2026

NCC 12A representing ASI on the Grand Park 2 Fire 🔥

Another assignment, another strong crew putting in the work.

08/30/2026

Our type 2 IA crew off to work 🪓🏕️

08/27/2026

Another look at our crews putting in the work on assignment 💪🏼

Our team out on the Little Bear and Rosenbaum Fires — working hard, staying focused, and doing what they do best out on the line.

08/25/2026

Holding the line into the night 🔥

NCC 12B on the line and getting dialed in during their night ops briefing — staying informed, prepared, and ready for the work ahead.

08/22/2026

08/20/2026

🔥 7 DAYS OF FIRELINE LEADERSHIP — SERIES VI

BUILDING CHAMPIONS — DAY 7

SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY THOSE WHO FOLLOW YOU

Today we close out Series VI — Building Champions with perhaps the most important lesson of the entire seven days:

Leadership success isn’t measured only by what you accomplish. It’s measured by what the people you develop eventually accomplish.

You can build a strong crew. You can run successful incidents. You can earn promotions, qualifications, respect, and recognition. Those things matter.

But one of the greatest accomplishments of leadership happens when you watch someone you once trained, coached, corrected, encouraged, and believed in become a respected leader themselves.

That’s when you know you made a difference.

🔥 DEVELOP PEOPLE.
Don’t focus only on today’s performance. Recognize potential and invest in it. Share your knowledge and experience—including the lessons you learned the hard way. Developing people means preparing them for responsibilities they may not have yet.

🔥 GIVE THEM OPPORTUNITIES.
People cannot learn leadership from the sidelines. Give firefighters opportunities to make decisions, lead training, brief crews, solve problems, and accept responsibility. Challenge them, support them, and allow them to grow.

🔥 PREPARE THEM FOR MORE.
Teach the why, not just the what. Build their confidence, judgment, character, situational awareness, and decision-making ability. Prepare them not simply for their next assignment—but for the day when other firefighters will depend on their leadership.

🔥 WATCH THEM LEAD.
Eventually, good leaders have to step aside and allow the people they’ve developed to lead. When they succeed, don’t see their success as replacing yours.

Their success is part of yours.

That is what Building Champions has been about.

Over these seven days we’ve talked about building great firefighters, coaching more than criticizing, developing confidence through trust, teaching the why, creating ownership, building teams we’d want beside us, and finally—creating leaders who will carry those principles forward.

WHY BUILDING CHAMPIONS MATTERS

A strong organization cannot depend on one great leader.

It needs leaders at every level.

When we develop champions, we create firefighters who take ownership, crews that communicate, people who hold one another accountable, and future leaders capable of making good decisions when conditions become difficult.

And those leaders eventually develop the next generation.

That’s how leadership multiplies.

That’s how strong crews become strong organizations.

That’s how standards survive when the people who established them are gone.

And ultimately, that’s how leadership becomes legacy.

The goal was never to create people who couldn’t succeed without us.

The goal was to develop people who someday become even better leaders than we were.

My Leadership Thought:
“A leader’s greatest legacy isn’t what they accomplished. It’s what others accomplish because of them. When the people you developed begin developing leaders of their own, you haven’t just built a firefighter—you’ve built a champion.”
— Will Spyrison

📸 Photo Credit: Bob Becker

08/20/2026

On the fire line, communication is everything 📻

Radios keep our crews connected, informed, and aware of changing conditions when every second matters. From coordinating resources to keeping tabs on one another, clear communication is one of the most important tools we carry.

Stay connected. Stay alert. Stay safe.