The Department of Agriculture (USDA), US Forest Service (USFS), Equipment and Services Branch (ESB) West Zone (Regions and 3, 5, 6, 10), anticipates soliciting quotes (RFQ) for Water Handling for use during Local, Regional, and nationwide fire suppression and all-hazard incidents. Section D.2 within the solicitation will contain equipment details. The Contractor is responsible for all equipment, materials, supplies, transportation, lodging, trained/certified personnel, and supervision and management of those personnel, necessary to meet or exceed the Agreement specifications. Optional awarded agreement use by Interagency Cooperators (subject to that agency?s payment and administrative terms). The resources may be used in the protection of lands, to include but not be limited to, severity, fire suppression and all-hazard incidents. The USFS will determine annually whether it is in the Government?s best interest to initiate an open season on-ramping process to add additional Contractors and/or resources during the annual Contracting Officer (CO) review period noted in Section C.3.1 of the solicitation.

RATES: Proposed rates should be based on up to a 16hr. Daily Shift and include all within B.2 -- PRICING AND ESTIMATED QUANTITY.

DISPATCH CENTER: Agreements will be competitively awarded within the R3, R5, R6 and R10 Regional dispatch centers. Agreement intent and Government guidance is for Quoters to select the available dispatch center closest to their resource location in order to reasonably meet the Government?s (Host Agency?s) date and time needed for emergency incident support, as well as offer best value to the Government for travel costs for each potential dispatch/BPA Call. Since wildland fire support and locations are unknown at time of award, selection of a host dispatch center/zone outside of where the resources reside may result in loss of opportunity and failure to meet Government?s critical and timely need at time of incident. Map link: https://www.nifc.gov/nicc/

SET-ASIDES: The agreement will be competitively awarded. The Government anticipates awarding multiple preseason Incident Blanket Purchase Agreements (I-BPAs) using a total Small Business set aside with further consideration per Section B.6 -- SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS ADVANTAGE APPLICABLE TO DPL RANKING.

****The solicitation will be issued using the Virtual Incident Procurement (VIPR) system****

1) Vendors must have a valid e-mail address; all VIPR communications, to include rate negotiations and award notification, are conducted via e-mail.

2) Vendors must have a valid DUNS Number. Request a free DUNS Number from https://iupdate.dnb.com/iUpdate/companylookup.htm.

3) Vendors must have active registration in the System for Award Management (SAM): https://www.sam.gov/SAM/.

4) Vendors are required to have a USDA Level 2 eAuthentication account that provides the ability to conduct official electronic business transactions. WILL NEED THIS TO CREATE A VIPR ACCOUNT. Information: https://www.fs.fed.us/business/incident/eauth.php.

5) Vendors must submit a quote electronically using the VIPR Vendor Application: http://www.fs.fed.us/business/incident/vendorapp.php