Aitor Bidaburu currently serves as the Wildfire Technical Advisor to Dr. Moore-Merrell, Administrator, U.S. Fire Administration. Aitor began his wildfire career in 1982 with the U.S. Forest Service where he started as a GS-3 Forestry Technician. Throughout the course of the next 17 years with the USFS he served on Incident Management Teams (IMT), Initial Attack and Extended Attack Incident Commander (IC), engine Captain, hotshot crew member and a Type 1 Prescribed Fire Boss until his departure when he joined the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM). During his nine years with the BLM at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Aitor served as the national fire training lead for BLM in its mission to support the BLM wildfire workforce nationally.

In 2008, Aitor joined the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) in support of the agency’s wildfire mission. He is assigned to the National interagency Fire Center (NIFC) and works daily in an interagency environment with the partner agencies. Duties include serving on the Executive Boards for the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) and the National Multi-Agency Coordinating (NMAC) groups. During periods of elevated wildfire activity, NMAC coordinates and prioritizes resource allocations nationally in support of SLTT represented by Geographic Areas. NWCG is a national wildfire standards development group focused on training, equipment, personnel, operations, safety, aviation, and prescribed fire.