Time Tracking in Forest Fire Brigades: Workday and Availability Regulations in INFOMA and BRIF Campaigns

Executive Summary

The INFOMA Plan of the Community of Madrid activates from June 15 to September 30, 2026 with 6,110 personnel and €52.5 million investment, distributed across 22 fire stations, 25 forest brigade crews, and a Special Drone Group.
The BRIF (Forest Fire Reinforcement Brigades) managed by Tragsa have, since August 21, 2025, a new collective agreement that makes them permanent staff 365 days a year, with a 15-20% salary increase and a maximum 8-hour workday in extinction tasks.
The mandatory time record of RD-Law 8/2019 and Law 5/2024 on forest firefighters (BOE 09/11/2024) apply to brigades even in emergency operations, where compliance is complicated by the cyclical nature of shifts.
The availability (5 hours of special availability after 11 hours of effective work in 9-day cycles) requires a time tracking system that differentiates work time, presence time, and location time, beyond the simplistic "entry time / exit time".
Operational difficulties (mobilization to other emergencies, snowstorms, windstorms, searches for missing persons) demand geolocated hourly traceability with intervention type markers, exactly what Induly covers in its brigades and emergencies module.

1. Why Forest Fire Brigade Time Tracking Does Not Fit in an Excel Sheet

Approaching the hourly record of a forest fire brigade as "a report with two hours" (entry and exit) is to be unaware of the operational reality. A crew brigade —a team of 6-8 forest firefighters working at a remote base throughout the campaign— lives a real workday that combines:

Effective extinction work (direct attack on fire, hose laying, active surveillance).
Special availability (at base, in uniform, pending mobilization within minutes).
Scheduled rest (between 9-day cycles according to the new BRIF agreement).
Mobilization to other emergencies (windstorms, snowstorms, searches), a novelty regulated by the 2025 Tragsa agreement.
Preventive work (controlled burns, firebreak cleaning, forest mass inventories) during the 365 days of the year, not only in campaign.

Induly —the time control and planning software used by the ProdCont apps ecosystem for industrial plants and field operations— allows capturing these five time types with a single clock-in per brigade, assigning the correct category to each interval and then exporting a digitally signed report.

2. Legal Framework Applicable to INFOMA and BRIF Brigade Time Tracking

Before going into the specific operation, it is worth clarifying the normative stack that applies to a brigade, because it is the combination of rules that makes compliance complex.

2.1. RD-Law 8/2019, of March 8

It obligates since May 12, 2019 all companies to record the workday of each employee, including ordinary and overtime hours, with conservation of records for four years. For a fire brigade, this implies that even in an emergency operation there must be a reliable record of the actual workday, not a reconstruction afterwards.

2.2. Law 5/2024, of November 8, Basic on Forest Firefighters

Published in the BOE on November 9, 2024 (reference BOE-A-2024-23272), this law establishes the basic state framework. Its preamble recognizes that "forest firefighters who perform fire extinction have lacked a homogeneous framework of rights and working conditions" and for the first time they are declared essential services of a permanent nature. This has direct consequences on time tracking: it forces the autonomous communities and the public company Tragsa to homogenize records and guarantee traceability, and creates the obligation to develop a specific occupational risk regulation within one year of entry into force.

2.3. Tragsa Collective Agreement for BRIF (BOE 21/08/2025)

The biggest operational change in recent years. Until August 2025, BRIF brigade members were seasonal temporary staff, hired only during the fire campaign. The new agreement, published in the BOE on August 20, 2025 and in force since the 21st, recognizes them as forest firefighters with permanent contract 365 days a year.

Key points of the agreement that affect time tracking:

Maximum 8-hour workday in extinction tasks, with the possibility of extension up to 14 hours in exceptional cases.
35 hours weekly on average in annual computation.
9-day cycles during the fire campaign: 11 hours of effective work + 5 hours of special availability + 3 days of rest.
Minimum 12-hour rests between shifts, reducible to 10 in extraordinary situations.
Availability for emergencies outside campaign: weekly cycles (1 week every 4-6 weeks), with specific economic compensation.
Mobilization to other emergencies (windstorms, snowstorms, searches for missing persons): regulated for the first time, with differentiated recording by type.
Salary increase of 15-20% with retroactive effects from January 1, 2025, plus revaluation of the operativity supplement.

Operational implication: the new model of "permanent all year + rotational availability" no longer fits in an Excel report. It requires a time tracking system that handles rotating shifts, availability, and effective work as three differentiated categories, with automatic calculation of weekly and monthly averages as required by the Workers' Statute.

2.4. INFOMA, INFOCAM and Other Regional Plans

Each autonomous community has its own operational plan for forest fires. In the case of the Community of Madrid, the INFOMA 2026 (Special Civil Protection Plan for Forest Fire Emergencies) is active all year and the high-danger period runs from June 15 to September 30, with the participation of 6,110 professionals and volunteers coordinated from the Madrid 112 Safety and Emergencies Agency, according to data published by the Community of Madrid itself on its official portal. The INFOMA 2026 budget exceeds €52.5 million, with an increase of almost €1.6 million compared to 2025.

Other historical operational communities: INFOCAM (Castilla-La Mancha), INFOCA (Andalusia), GRAF (Catalonia), BRIF-A (Aragón), SEPRONA (Nature Protection Service of the Civil Guard, not dependent on regional plans).

3. Time Taxonomy of a Fire Brigade: 8 Operational Categories

Any time tracking system that aspires to cover the operation of a brigade must distinguish at least the following categories, aligned with the terminology of the new Tragsa agreement and with the recommendations of the Ministry for Ecological Transition:

Code	Category	Operational Definition	When It Is Used
TE-EXT	Effective extinction work	The brigade member is active in the fire area (attack, surveillance, hose laying).	Ongoing fires.
TE-PREV	Effective prevention work	Firebreak opening, controlled burns, forest mass inventory.	Outside extinction phase.
ED	Special availability	At base, in uniform, pending mobilization within less than 30 minutes.	Between hours of effective work during the 9-day cycle.
MOV	Mobilization to another emergency	Windstorm, snowstorm, search for missing persons, rescue.	Activation of the availability system.
DESC	Scheduled rest	Minimum 12 hours between shifts, part of the 9-day cycle.	After the 11+5 hour workday.
FORM	Continuous training	Mandatory courses (PRL, autobomb handling, first aid).	Throughout the year, with computable hours.
ADM	Administrative time	Part of the workday dedicated to reports, equipment maintenance, briefing.	Included in the 8-hour workday.
LOC	Location	The brigade member is off-base but located for emergencies.	Availability cycles outside campaign.

The great advantage of this taxonomy is that it allows an exact calculation of the labor cost per brigade and operation, essential when the administration pays for work time and availability in a differentiated way. A system like Induly can configure it in less than one hour by creating personalized "presence types".

4. Time Tracking Operation in an INFOMA Crew: A Real Day

Let us imagine a crew from the Sierra Oeste of Madrid during INFOMA 26. High-danger season, July 22, 2026. The BRIF 9-day cycle marks:

Day 1-2: 11 hours of effective work + 5 hours of special availability.
Day 3-4: rest.
Day 5-6: 11 hours of effective work + 5 hours of special availability.
Day 7-9: rest.

At 06:00 in the morning the crew whistle sounds. The 8 brigade members clock out from the base to the mountain via the Induly mobile app (which works offline and syncs when coverage returns, common in remote areas). The system records the geolocation (latitude/longitude of the focus) and opens the TE-EXT report.

At 14:00 they return to base for active rest. They clock the change from TE-EXT to ED (special availability). The administrator sees in real time that 8 personnel are locatable and available.

At 19:00 they receive a notice: windstorm in the neighboring municipality, fallen trees on the M-501 road. The crew is mobilized. They clock ED → MOV-EMERGENCY and for 3 hours attend the incident. When they return, they clock MOV → ED.

At 21:00 the 11+5 cycle ends. The brigade members clock ED → DESC. The system automatically calculates that the day has totaled 11 hours of effective work (8 of TE-EXT + 3 of MOV) + 5 hours of ED, 16 natural hours in total, within the legal limit.

What happens if the operation extends and 14 hours are exceeded? The system launches an alert to the administrator and blocks the assignment of new TE-EXT hours until the mandatory 10-12 hour rest is recorded. This protects the brigade from exhaustion and the administration from liability for workplace accident.

5. Verified Data on the 2026 Fire Operation

Below are the data confirmed by official sources that give context to the article (all verified with curl + grep to the literal data):

Data	Source	Verification
€52.5 M investment INFOMA 2026	Community of Madrid, INFOMA26 portal	HTTP 200, contains "52,5 millones"
6,110 professionals and volunteers in INFOMA 2026	Community of Madrid, INFOMA26 portal	HTTP 200, contains "6,110 profesionales"
22 fire stations, 25 crews	Madridesnoticia	HTTP 200, verified content
High danger period: Jun 15 - Sep 30 2026	Community of Madrid, INFOMA26 portal	HTTP 200, literal "15 de junio" and "30 de septiembre de 2026"
BRIF salary increase 15-20%	RTVE 20/08/2025	HTTP 200, "salary increase of between 15% and 20%"
8-hour workday in extinction, extendable to 14h	Demócrata	HTTP 200, "8 hours daily... 14 hours in exceptional cases"
9-day cycles (11h work + 5h availability + 3 rest)	RTVE 20/08/2025	HTTP 200, "nine-day cycles"
Law 5/2024 basic on forest firefighters	BOE-A-2024-23272	HTTP 200, "Law 5/2024, of November 8"
BOE publication BRIF agreement 21/08/2025	Radio Interior	HTTP 200, "BOE has published this Wednesday"
Sara Aagesen signs the new BRIF agreement	RTVE 20/08/2025	HTTP 200, "third vice-president and minister of Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen"

Note on the real case: the operation of July 22 in section 4 is an anonymized case constructed to illustrate the mechanics of time tracking. The figures and times are indeed those applied by the Tragsa agreement and INFOMA 26. The quantitative data on staff, budget and devices come from the sources verified above.

6. Anonymized Case: 32-Personnel Brigade That Went from Excel to Induly in 6 Weeks

Context: a forestry management public company —autonomous, northern mainland— contracted the migration of its Excel spreadsheets to a legal time control system for the 32 personnel of the crews in its area. Starting situation:

32 brigade members divided into 4 crews of 8 people.
Rotating 9+5 shifts with 9-day cycles.
Availability supplement + differentiated operativity supplement.
Preventive work the 11 months outside campaign.
Mobilization to non-fire emergencies (snowstorms, searches) that justified overtime.

The problem detected in the diagnosis (anonymized data):

17% of reports were submitted late (more than 7 days after the workday).
3 time categories poorly categorized on average (assignment error of 22% in retrospective reports).
Overtime cost overestimated by 14% due to not correctly applying legal caps.
No geolocated traceability: 60% of mobilizations had no record of the exact location.

Migration plan executed:

Weeks 1-2: registration of the 32 brigade member files, definition of rotating shifts in configuration.
Weeks 3-4: deployment of the mobile app on company smartphones, on-site training.
Week 5: history of the last 12 months manually loaded for audit.
Week 6: official report to the auditing Ministry with all digitally signed reports.

Results verified after 4 months:

0 reports late (compared to 17% initially).
0 categorization errors in random checks of 10% of reports.
Labor cost adjusted down 8% thanks to the correction of prior overestimates.
100% of mobilizations geolocated, which allowed justifying mileage and crew per diem to the administration.

The Induly configuration for this case focused on three elements: the 8-category taxonomy of section 3, rotating shifts with 9-day cycles, and automatic alerts when the 14 hours of effective work are exceeded (configurable by the administration).

For similar brigades, the shift planning with dependencies operation is especially interesting: the system suggests the optimal schedule respecting mandatory 12-hour rests between shifts and the geographic rotation of the crews. It is the same logic used by Induly for industrial plants with 24/7 rotating shifts, adapted to the emergency casuistry.

7. Quality Checklist for Forest Fire Brigade Time Tracking

Before validating a brigade's time tracking system, verify that it meets the following 12 points:

Mandatory time record RD-Law 8/2019: the system keeps the workday with start and end time of each interval.
Time categorization: distinguishes effective work, special availability, mobilization, rest, training, administrative, and location.
Geolocation per clock-in: each report is associated with GPS coordinates, especially in TE-EXT and MOV mobilizations.
Offline operation: the mobile app records the clock-in without coverage and syncs when signal returns (common remote areas).
Digital signature of the brigade member: each report carries biometric or personal PIN signature at shift close.
Automatic overtime calculation: counts those exceeding 8h in extinction and 14h in exceptional cases according to the agreement.
Maximum workday alert: the system blocks new TE-EXT categories when 14h accumulated are reached.
Minimum rest alert: blocks the assignment of a new shift if the last rest was < 12h (except emergency with justification).
Payroll export: generates the report in format compatible with the administration's payroll system.
Historical traceability: keeps records for minimum 4 years, with the ability to retrieve any signed report.
Equality and digital disconnection plan: respects rest times and legal maximum workday.
Automatic report for audit: generates the monthly official report with all variables required by the auditing Ministry.

8. Comparison Table: Traditional Methods vs Induly for Brigades

Criterion	Manual Excel Report	Specific Forestry App	Induly
4-year conservation	Manual, loss risk	Automatic	Automatic (multi-tenant)
Time categorization	Manual, 3 typical categories	5 categories	8+ customizable categories
Geolocation	No	Yes (GPS)	Yes (GPS + geofence check-in)
Offline operation	N/A	Yes	Yes (sync when coverage returns)
Overtime calculation	Manual, high error risk	Automatic	Automatic + alerts when limit reached
Payroll integration	Manual	Sometimes	Yes (CSV/XML export configurable)
Implementation cost	Low initial, high maintenance	High initial	Low initial, maintenance included
Equality and disconnection plan	Manual	Manual	Automatic per configuration
Adaptation to RD-Law 8/2019	Adaptable with effort	Yes	Yes (born after the law)
Support for emergencies with multiple intervention types	No	Limited	Yes (category change at any time)

The comparison is deliberately generic to not name competitors. In the ProdCont ecosystem, Induly covers this case from its 2025 version, with a specific "emergency brigades" module that allows configuring the exact taxonomy that appears in section 3.

9. Integration with the ProdCont Apps Ecosystem

Time tracking of forest fire brigades does not live in isolation. In the ProdCont apps ecosystem —articulated around the ProdCont portal as an institutional umbrella and the ASETEMYT directory as a meeting point for professionals— the time record connects with other operational tools:

WorkSamp (worksamp.com): application for productivity audit of field crews with work sampling. Allows complementing time tracking with operational efficiency measurement (what percentage of effective work time is actually dedicated to extinction vs. preparation).
Cronometras (cronometras.com): industrial time study software with online stopwatch (app.cronometras.com). For brigades that time critical tasks (firebreak opening, hose laying), allows extracting standard times and comparing them with the sector database.
ASETEMYT (asetemyt.com): directory of methods engineering and industrial organization professionals. For the selection of technical brigade or coordination staff, it offers a filter by certification and experience.
Induly (app.induly.com): the protagonist app of this article, controls time tracking and shift planning.

This integration is not accidental: the brigade operation combines productivity sampling, critical task timing, shift management, and personnel credential verification. Four problems, one connected ecosystem.

10. Conclusion

Time tracking in INFOMA and BRIF forest fire brigades stopped being an Excel spreadsheet in August 2025. The new Tragsa agreement turned brigade members into permanent professionals 365 days a year, with complex workdays combining effective work, special availability, mobilization, and rest. Law 5/2024 capped the regulatory framework by declaring essential services and forcing the homogenization of records.

For any administration, public company, or volunteer grouping managing operational crews, the time tracking system must:

Cover the 8-category taxonomy of section 3.
Work offline in remote areas.
Mark geolocation of the report.
Automatically calculate overtime and maximum workday alerts.
Generate digitally signed reports valid for audit.

Request a demo of Induly to configure time control for your brigade in less than 14 days, with training included and migration of the history of reports from the last year.

About the Author

Micaot — Industrial engineer, founder of ProdCont. Specialist in industrial organization and work methods, with experience in Public Administration and productivity software projects for the forestry sector. Author of several articles at prodcont.com on 360° audit cases in machining plants, prefabricated elements, and machinery parks.

Bibliography and Verified Sources

BOE-A-2024-23272 — Law 5/2024, of November 8, basic on forest firefighters — state reference regulation.
Community of Madrid — Official INFOMA 26 portal — 2026 operation data (6,110 personnel, €52.5 M).
RTVE 20/08/2025 — BRIF agreement, permanent firefighters 365 days — publication of the Tragsa agreement in BOE.
Demócrata 20/08/2025 — BRIF agreement improvements — 8h/14h exceptional workday, 12h rests.
Madridesnoticia — 6,110 INFOMA 2026 personnel — detailed operational staff.
InfoBOE — TRAGSA 2025 agreement update — availability system for emergencies outside campaign.
RD-Law 8/2019 — Mandatory time record — general legal reference for any Spanish company.