| Volunteer with ESD |
Greetings prospective volunteer! Thanks for your interest in volunteering with Burning Man's Emergency Services Department.
ESD provides Communications, Firefighting, Medical, and Mental Health capabilities to the Burning Man event. We accept volunteers from a wide range of backgrounds. Each branch of ESD has its own requirements for appropriate background, certifications, training and experience.
Please read through this guide on volunteering with ESD before contacting us with any
questions. If you still have any questions or concerns, you can use the contact form to
reach any of our branches.
Volunteer Requirements
- Have on file a volunteer application: http://www2.burningman.com/people
- A valid drivers license (necessary to drive an official vehicle on-playa during the event)
- Certification of completion of the ICS-100 / Basic Incident Command or equivalent course. This is required
for understanding basic emergency operations at Burning Man. The courses may be accessed online at:
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is100.asp
- A face forward-head shot photo, from mid sternum to two inches over the head, similar to a driver's license or
passport photo. Please no sunglasses or apparel to obscure your identity. This photo is to identify you as
Burning Man Staff. Unrecognizable images will not be processed and you will not receive a laminate.
Please submit images in JPEG format, and name the file "FirstnameLastname". For digital cameras: Set Resolution at 640 X 480, as this will keep the file size small and is adequate photo quality for our process.
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Fire Branch
- Firefighter certification - this can be FF1 or higher or a wildland card. Whatever your level of training, it
must be current and from a recognized agency or school. We also require that you have at least one year of field
experience, volunteer or paid.
- Haz-Mat awareness training or Haz-Mat operations (preferred).
- Any additional relevant certifications or licenses.
- All medical personnel must be at least EMT-B or higher, with a minimum of 1 year experience. Doctors, Nurses, LVN
and Paramedics are all welcome. We do not practice above BLS level at the event.
- Scanned / Faxed copies to the Medical Chief of all relevant licenses, certifications and recent healthcare level
CPR certification.
- While there is no requirement, many of our volunteers carry their own medical practice insurance, and we encourage
you to do so.
The Mental Health Branch accepts volunteers with either a speciality in mental health or sexual assault and domestic violence. Mental health volunteers need a minimum of a related bachelors college degree, but a masters, doctorate, or other specialized post graduate degree is preferred. In addition Mental health professionals must also have a current practice and at least one year of current clinical experience beyond their clinical internship hours. Sexual assault and domestic specialists need at least one year of experience and must be actively involved with a program on an ongoing basis. Ideally SA/DV specialists should have a related bachelors or higher degree, but it is not required.
Communications Branch
Our dispatchers and communications technicians come from a variety of skill-sets and backgrounds. Some are military-trained, former taxi-dispatchers, amateur radio operators who have worked special events for years and even a few professional and ex-dispatchers from a variety of agencies. At the minimum we are looking for individuals with a reasonable level of background operating and dispatching with 2-way radio equipment. Knowledge and a basic understanding of how 2-way radio systems function is highly recommended.
Public Safety and Commercial wireless technicians, IT professionals and amateur radio operators make up the technician pool. Currently, we have plenty of technicians. However, if you want to make the commitment to donate multiple weekends of your time every year maintaining and upgrading our on-playa communications infrastructure, please let us know.