GIS was utilized to map and monitor the hourly/daily spread of the fire, measure fire suppression actions, assess damage to natural resources, and evaluate damage to adjacent homes in the wildland/urban interface. These tasks were possible, though, only through the efforts of many personnel and the generous support of state and federal agencies, private organizations and vendors. Within only a 12 hours of fire ignition, the California Office of Emergency Services dispatched a strike team of GIS specialists to aid in fire analysis. This team was a self-contained unit including four specialists and hardware and software capable of assessing the spread of the fire. Upon this foundation, a fully operational GIS lab was in place within two days of fire ignition. The GIS lab extended through three offices and connecting hallways. Cables snaked through offices networking hardware between GIS platforms.

At the height of the operation, hardware consisted of two Sun Microsystems UNIX based workstations (with Arc/Info and ArcView software), two DOS based personal computers (one with PC ARC/INFO and the other with MapInfo), two laptop computers, two Hewlett Packard HP650C Designjet printers, a digitizer and various smaller printers. During the fire effort, the GIS team consumed five rolls of plotter paper, four color cartridges, several reams of paper and tens of diskettes.

A collection of people with special skills in computer systems administration GPS, and GIS from NPS (Regional Field Office and Golden Gate National Recreation Area); the University of California, Berkeley; the California State Lands Commission; and a member the Department of the Interior BAER team rotated through the GIS lab and provided services to keep the operation running smoothly 24 hours per day. Additionally, one person acted as a liaison between the GIS lab and the outside world, helping to interpret the needs of the "customers" and what the lab could produce. The language of users and producers often times necessitated translation because many disciplines (geology, hydrology, ecology, computer science, etc.) were combined into the GIS.