Lauman, Rick S

Lauman, Rick S, operating as Western Fire Suppression Division, is a veteran-owned sole proprietorship based in Terrebonne, Oregon, that supplies water tenders, heavy equipment, and fire suppression personnel to the U.S. Forest Service as a prime contractor under total small business set-asides and full-and-open competitions. Western Fire Suppression competes exclusively on Forest Service IDIQs and Blanket Purchase Agreements; all 44 awards in the source are prime contracts (100%), with no subcontractor footprint.

The vendor's portfolio is concentrated in wildland fire suppression equipment and services across western U.S. Forest Service regions. Capability work centers on providing preseason and incident-response water tenders, cranes, engines, tactical water handling equipment, and personnel dispatch to support fire containment, prescribed burn operations, and all-hazard incident response. Recent delivery orders exemplify the work: a $175,859 total-small-business delivery order from USFS Region 6 (Pacific Northwest) on August 15, 2026, for water tenders and operational support in Pendleton, Oregon; a $161,000 firm-fixed-price order from Region 6 on July 16, 2024, for water tenders and cranes supporting fire suppression across multiple Forest Service regions; and a $185,611 order from Region 6 on June 23, 2024, for equipment and operators in Ellensburg, Washington.

Customer concentration is heavily weighted to the Department of Agriculture Forest Service. The top two customers account for 100% of awards: the Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management National Interagency Fire Center (15 awards, $2.3 million combined potential value) and the Forest Service R6–Pacific Northwest Region (23 awards, $1.5 million combined potential value). All other customers—including the Forest Service Washington Office Acquisitions, the Forest Service entity-wide, and the Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Oregon-Washington—together represent fewer than 10% of dollar value. The vendor's NAICS footprint is 43 awards under Support Activities for Forestry (238910), with one specialized trucking award.

Western Fire Suppression holds five active IDIQs and participates in the Forest Service's FIRE Blanket Purchase Agreement. The primary IDIC vehicles are multiple-award Indefinite Delivery Contracts valued at $250,000 to $500,000 each, all set-aside for total small business participation, with performance periods extending through May 2030. The largest recent vehicle is an IDC (contract 1204H119T7253) with 13 task orders totaling $358 thousand, followed by IDC 12569R25T7365 (4 task orders, $371 thousand) and IDC 1202SB22T7952 (3 task orders, $279 thousand). Activity has grown modestly in recent years—from 3 awards in 2022 to 9 in 2026—with the combined potential value of all awards standing at $4 million and obligated dollars at $1.6 million (40% of potential).