About Us
Meet Our team
Our Partners have provided Incident Command System- ICS training, Incident Management Team- IMT development and consulting services as well as evaluating IMT performance through developing and conducting training exercises for both public and private entities across the US as well as worldwide.
Mike Dietrich
Mike Dietrich is a Managing Partner with Utility Response Training Associates.
Mike Dietrich
A career veteran of incident management in the forestry and forest fire services, Mike spent over nearly 40 years working in a variety of field and staff positions. Beginning his public service career as a Park Superintendent for the North Dakota Park Service in 1976, Mike served as a Forester and Fuels Management Specialist with the BLM in Eugene, Oregon, from 1979 to 1988. From 1988 to 1998, Mike acted as the Fire Management Officer for the Bureau of Land Management in the Salem District and Siuslaw National Forest in Oregon before retiring as the Fire Chief and Forest Fire Management Officer in the San Bernardino National Forest from 1998 to 2009. He was also the ICS Project Manager for Southern California Edison from 2010 through 2012. Since then, Mike has been teaching NIMS All-Hazard and National Wildlife Coordinating Group courses to various industry entities, to include a large electric utility in California.
Recognized as an international expert in wildland fires, Mike has been involved with Class A Foam development and technology since 1981. He has coordinated with Regional Fire Equipment Committees in Oregon, Washington, and California. Between 1995 and 2001, he participated in Federal Fire Policy and Program Reviews to help standardize national policies. In 2004, he received the Secretary of Agriculture’s Award for Heroism and Emergency Response for pre-planning efforts prior to the 2003 Southern California Fire Siege and establishment of the Mountain Area Safety Task Force (MAST) concept, which has been viewed as a model in partnerships.
Continuing to give back to the community, Mike is a member of the Society of American Foresters, serving as the Chair of the Fire Working Group for two years, and has been a volunteer firefighter with Lane Rural Fire Protection District (Eugene, OR). To properly recognize his firefighting brethren, Mike helped establish the U.S. Forest Service Honor Guard to show merited respect at funerals and memorials for employees killed in the line of duty, and to represent the Forest Service in events such as high visibility fire prevention or law enforcement events, parades, recruitment, and award ceremonies, presenting an appearance of professionalism, dignity, honor, and pride in the Forest Service. He is also a member of the International Association of Wildland Fire. Recently, he became a member of Puentes as a Staff Forester. This is a non-profit which serves the community of Stockton for local organic produce in the “food desert”.
Mike is certified as a National (Type 1) Incident Commander and a Type 1 Planning Section Chief. He has assisted on numerous complex fires and national disasters, such as Hurricanes Katrina / Rita and Columbia Shuttle Recovery. During the Gulf Oil Spill in 2010, he served as an ICS Advisor to the US Coast Guard/BP. Mike is additionally FEMA certified to instruct at the 300/400 level and includes the Incident Commander and Planning Section Chief courses.
Mike holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Montana (1976) and an A.A.S. Degree from Paul Smith’s College in NY (1974).
R. Ranger Dorn
R. Ranger Dorn is a Managing Partner with Utility Response Training Associates.
R. Ranger Dorn
Ranger has been a member of the fire service for over 40 years. Ranger has responded to All Hazards incidents nationwide as part of both Regional and National Incident Management Teams, including major hurricanes and wildfires. He has attained qualifications as a Type 1 Incident Commander and Type 1 Operations Section Chief. Ranger’s All-Hazards experience also includes training and responses to Hazardous materials, Radiological Materials, Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting (ARFF), Urban Search and Rescue (USAR), Shipboard Firefighting, and Water Rescue.
Ranger has been a qualified training and exercise provider since the 1990s. He has created and delivered oil spill – OPA 90, response exercises, and training to responders from California to the Arctic Circle. He has provided training and exercises to USCG incident commanders and Incident Management Teams as well as Position-Specific training to other agencies nationally. He participated in the development and delivery of several DHS/FEMA courses, including WMD First Responder, Planning Specialist and Operational Value of Threat, Risk, and Vulnerability Assessments-OPVAL. He is a Train the Trainer instructor for a number of national ICS courses. Ranger has been a Subject Matter Expert for ICS for the National Sheriffs Association, FEMA, and Southern California Edison as well as the National Domestic Preparedness Coalition and has developed specialized courses for these entities.
Ranger is qualified as a Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP) and has participated in the development, delivery, evaluation, and after-action reporting for exercises from the local level to National Level Exercises (NLE) for local and state governments as well as private utilities. He is an outreach instructor for California Specialized Training Institute, CSTI, and California State Fire Training- SFT.
Ranger has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Fire Protection Management from the Engineering Department at Cal State Los Angeles, as well as a Master’s Degree in Public Administration (MPA) from Cal State Northridge. He holds a Chief Officer certification from the California State Fire Marshalls Office.
Steve Heil
Steve Heil is a Managing Partner with Utility Response Training Associates.
Steve Heil
Steve Heil has over 45+ years working in All-Hazards Incident and Event Management. Experience includes 45 years with CAL FIRE retiring as a Deputy Fire Chief - Executive Officer for CAL FIRE / San Diego County Fire Authority (helped form SDCFA) and Deputy Fire Chief – Operations for CAL FIRE / San Luis Obispo County Fire Department. Was the CAL FIRE Ventura / Santa Barbara Division Chief from 1988 to 2000 (working numerous incidents throughout California). After retirement, worked with CAL FIRE as a Retired Annuitant teaching and mentoring fire chiefs and emergency managers. He is also trained and certified as a California Peace Officer (Retired PC 830.2).
Steve is an ICS/FEMA Master Instructor / Subject Matter Expert with numerous assignments throughout the world, teaching internationally for USAID / Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USFS-International Programs), mentoring Incident Managers in Asia and Africa including 28 international assignments with India, China, Indonesia, Bhutan, Philippines, Myanmar, Thailand, Timor Leste, and South Africa. Overseas assignments include Cyclones / Floods in Myanmar (2015), APEC Summit in Manila, Philippines [Presidents from 21 countries attending] (2015), International Earthquake - Tsunami Exercise in Sumatra, Indonesia (2014), and teaching ICS internationally to achieve consistency in worldwide disaster management (2011 - 2019). In 2018 hosted an Incident Management Team from South Africa on a study tour throughout California. In 2019 Steve lead a team in India, updating their entire ICS/IRS curriculum and conducted train-the-trainer courses for their national instructors.
California experience includes Incident Commander managing several CAL FIRE Incident Management Teams. One of six CAL FIRE Area Commanders. Numerous assignments include CAL FIRE Unified Area Commander on the 2003 San Bernardino Fire Siege, 2006 Day Fire, 2012 Kern Complex, plus Incident Commander on the 2005 Topanga Fire in Los Angeles County, and dozens of other major fires and all-hazard incidents. Qualified in numerous ICS Command and General Staff positions. Worked on and conducted training exercises for fires, floods, mudslides, earthquakes, riots, cyclones, oil spills (Deepwater Horizon 2010), pandemics (H1N1), international meetings, hazardous materials, and other all-hazard incidents.
Since 2010, has worked as a contractor for Southern California Edison in the development of ICS training courses for their executives, managers, and various business units, resulting in the company now having 24 Incident Management Teams. A Managing Partner with Utility Response Training Associates providing incident management and ICS training to both private and public agencies/companies, providing training and exercises to companies such as PG&E, Con Edison – NY, SDG&E, and municipal governments.
Instructor certifications from California State Fire Marshall, FEMA/EMI (per CA. OES State Training Officer), and a CSTI Outreach Instructor. Instruction qualifications include authorization to teach all FEMA All-Hazards Position Specific Training for Command & General Staff, ICS 100-400, ICS 402, O-305 (Type 3 IMT’s), I-420 (Type 2 IMT’s), Advanced All-Hazards Incident Management (520 – Type 1 IMT’s), Area Command (620) plus many NWCG courses
Don Will
Don Will is a Managing Partner with Utility Response Training Associates.
Don Will
Don retired from the United States Forest Service as Deputy Chief, on the Tahoe National Forest in January 2009. Don has 40 years of combined experience in All-Hazard Emergency Incident Management response and training.
Don is active in All-Hazard Incident Management responses as a qualified Type 1 Operations Section Chief and Type 1 Safety Officer. From 1996 through 2016, Don served on four Incident Management Teams.
Don’s deployment experience includes numerous complex incidents involving wildland fires and hurricane response and recovery throughout the United States. In 2010, Don was assigned to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf Coast as an Incident Command System (ICS) advisor and trainer working with the US Coast Guard and BP Oil.
Don is currently involved in the National Incident Management System (NIMS) ICS and Position Specific training to Federal, State, and Local Government agencies as well as oil-gas and electric utility companies. Don has delivered training classes in Guam and Saipan, Canada, Norway, and Scotland.
Don is a qualified instructor for the Emergency Management Institute (EMI), Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP), National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) California State Fire Training (SFT), California Specialized Training Institute (CSTI) and the U.S. Coast Guard.
Don has an Associate of Science degree in Park Management, successfully completed a two-year graduate-level course of study in Technical Fire Management through Washington Institute Colorado State University, and completed Advanced Incident Management, S-520 at the National Advanced Fire and Resource Institute in Tucson, Arizona.