By Todd McNeal

As the Western United State’s wildland fire season rapidly approaches, the all too familiar question that is reflected upon annually begins to be pondered once again. What kind of fire season will it be? I have the simple answer for all those asking such questions: the worst fire season ever! All joking aside, I say that with the serious intent of triggering the mental preparedness that must begin today for those company officers expecting to perform and ensure the safety of an engine company in the complex arena of wildland fire suppression. Will it be an extreme season due to prolific moistures spurring vast vegetation growth or will the lack of said moisture cause draught conditions and low fuel moistures? The answer is the same for you in preparation of yourself and your crews: plan for the “worst fire season ever!”

If all company officers begin the pre-season refresher training and skill proficiency demonstrations with this potent statement in mind, then collectively we are planning for the worst case scenario. By default, thinking and planning in this manner increases the likelihood that we will be pleasantly surprised in our skills and safety record, rather than tragically during the year. Crew safety and effectiveness is and rightfully should be the number one goal of any company officer regardless of the emergency incident. Whether it is the medical aid, vehicle extrication, rope rescue, structure fire, or wildland fire response, the statement of “everyone goes home” should not be just idle lip service. This fundamental guiding principal should be the foundation, the integral part of every thought process, strategic or tactical decision, and ingrained into the mind of any person responsible for commanding personnel in a high risk, high consequence environment. Wildland fire suppression is one of those environments, and demands a high level of training, experience and education to safely and effectively engage personnel and equipment resources. 

Hopefully, there is no question in your mind that the wildland fire environment is a very complex and dynamic arena. There are numerous reasons for this complexity. From the basic behavior of fire, the modification of the fuels by human activities, the shear potential size of an incident due to lack of walls keeping fire from spreading across a diverse topography, to the variability and uncontrollable impact that weather has on wildland fire. All of these reasons, along with scores more, literally too many to list, combine with the human interest factor of developments, watersheds, infrastructure, etc. to produce a potential incident theater that is capable of testing our best commanders, company officers and ultimately jeopardizing each and every firefighter responding to these types of incidents. 

To assist in the processing of the complexity of this type of incident and in reducing risk exposure through proper knowledge and evaluation, I offer up three general areas the company officer can focus their individual and crew development and training to improve response safety and readiness.

1. Pre-season preparedness through education and skill proficiency
2. Pre-response and daily incident intelligence gathering
3. Post incident/season critique and adjustments.

Although these topical areas may seem overly simplified or even stating the obvious, the fact remains that we as a fire service can improve our safety and provide a superior service to the public if we concentrate our efforts in these key areas. Furthermore, by breaking down this large complex topic into smaller segments, efforts can be focused, and limited finances and time in the work day can be precisely targeted to yield the maximum benefit. 

Pre-season Preparedness

Beginning with the education side, now in the Fire Service more than ever, emphasis is being placed on formal classroom education. While I agree with the intent of the emphasis, I do believe it is somewhat contributing to the “chasing certificates” mentality that appears to be more prevalent. I know I am preaching to the choir on this one, but there is no piece of 8.5” x 11” paper out there that can make me a completely safe and proficient firefighter, regardless of rank. Instead we as company officers must educate those under our command as to the intent of the material and how to bring that material into the day to day operation. We are obligated to provide the classroom training to fulfill the variety of checklist requirements being placed on the Fire Service, but are also responsible to be the connection to knowledge applicability from the classroom to the field. Nowhere is this skill more necessary than in the topical area of wildland fire. The diversity of classes available on the topic is immense and a modern firefighter can spend vast amounts of time acquiring the classes and prerequisites necessary to become qualified in a multitude of positions within the incident command system. But again these are just certificates and vague recollections of some monotonous PowerPoint presentation unless we as company officers bring that material to life. Simply stated, we need to connect the classroom material to the material used in the field daily. There are many ways to do this, but this process starts with some sort of task book system and demonstration of the acquired knowledge applied to a real case scenario. The possibilities are endless in this regard, from holding hands on drills of hose evolutions and line construction, to using skills of fire behavior prediction to crank out estimations of critical fire behavior elements with supplied weather and topography inputs. The bottom line is clear: officers have a responsibility to provide training to their subordinates on what dangers they may face, provide them with skills and equipment to deal with those dangers, and ultimately where to go to escape those dangers. Now is the point that I would ask all company officers to honestly reflect on their individual departments support in this responsibility. I know firsthand that we as a collective national Fire Service are in uncharted financially troubled waters, the like of which many have never seen. The decisions being made with limited funds are hard decisions, and affect our jobs on a daily basis. Does anyone else seen the double edged sword being waved, that if an agency is asking their Fire Department to do more with less, isn’t the skills and education of the remaining members even more critical? Is this not transferring more responsibility down to the company officer level of providing education and training? Unfortunately the expensive formal classroom training, either delivered offsite, or hosted by the department, seems to be one of the first lines in the budget process to be cut. I know there are exceptions to this generality throughout the nation, but company officers need to be prepared to deliver more information in preparation for a fire season, and test that knowledge, skills and abilities at the station level. 

Specifically, I would suggest to all company officers to increase the knowledge base of your department — your particular shift — by treating preparedness for the wildland season much like pre-planning a building or target hazard in you first-due district. Know your enemy, and know where it is most likely to be engaged in your local and larger response area. Spend some time driving out in those area that have a WUI problem looking at the fuels of the current and past years. While out, look at the new developments and especially pay attention to areas that have inherent dangers built into them like poor access, limited water and lacking areas of survivability during a wildland fire. One technique is to go out as a company and visualize the fuels and topography in the area of concern, take some pictures, then come back to the station and run simulator based scenarios with what resources would actually be responding, and with a weather forecast that is likely for the specific area. This is obviously a scalable drill that can be dialed up or down in complexity depending on the experience of the engine company, and uses many different skills necessary in the wildland. From map reading, radio use, fire behavior prediction to tactical application of air and ground resources, all of these and more can be addressed, refreshed and built upon with little expense. Another excellent training tool that I have used is to go out in the field and set up a “toilet paper fire” where you literally take several rolls of toilet paper and trace out a fire perimeter from a point of origin and back so you can provide a target for the progressive hose lay drill. As much as we would like to have live fire drills, putting fire on the ground is not always practical. With this simple technique, the firefighters have a visual target to practice the basics. In addition, you as the officer can rate their effectiveness quite simply by looking to see if any of the toilet paper is left behind, or not obliterated by the hose stream, thus proving that fire was not fully suppressed and rekindled to potentially flank the crew and compromise their safety. The training potential with this drill is endless and quite inexpensive (as long as you use single ply). 

Firefighters practice water application on a toilet paper fire

Lastly, I know the idea of wildland refreshers are not always the favorite topic of training but they are, as stated, invaluable in preparing firefighters for the upcoming fire season. It is all of our responsibility engaged in wildland fire suppression to know the rules, the 10 standard fire order, the 18 watchouts, LCES and others; but it is the company officer’s responsibility to deliver that material in a fresh and interesting manner and ensure it is retained. The toilet paper may be flushable, but never our accumulated fire service knowledge.

Pre-response and daily incident intelligence gathering

Now let us turn our attention from the bigger-picture preparation during pre-season, to the smaller, but equally important task of daily preparation of the crew during fire season. There is no question that the company officer’s duties include a timely safe response to emergency incidents, and for the sake of this article, wildland fire response. Speed does not have to be inversely related to safety. As a collective of company officers, if we have done our pre-season refreshers and proficiency training with our crews, then a large component of speedy safe responses has already been accomplished. On a daily basis, encourage the crew to be observant of the weather, listen to the activity going on in the local area, and know how the fire season is progressing nationally. There is no reason why a person with access to the Internet and 10 minutes can not have mountains of fire season intelligence at their finger tips. It is impossible for me to list all of the web pages available but, but I will list a couple that have numerous links embedded within them and provide invaluable knowledge. The first is the National Situation Report available at  www.nifc.gov/nicc/sitreprt.pdf. This is a concise listing of all the incidents occurring within a geographic region, with some basic statistics and information about the ongoing or initial attack fires. One note that I would like to point out is that the first fire listed under any geographic region is deemed the number one priority fire for that region and thus will receive the bulk of the requested resources. This is important information for the Officer to know, because with a little research and a short briefing the company now knows where the fires are, which ones are most active, and which the ones they will likely be sent to as the incidents grow and continue to order resources. For example, let’s say that as an Officer you have determined the most likely fire to order additional resources, its location, and vital statistics. Now you can research specific information about that geographic location, especially weather, terrain, hazards and improvements in that area to better equip you with the knowledge of a potentially unfamiliar area. A web site for this stage of research that I would suggest is gacc.nifc.gov/. This page is the Geographic Area Coordination Center Portal, or GACCs that are scattered across the nation and responsible for intelligence gathering and priority setting of fires within the geographic region. From here you can go to a variety of sites all of which have specific fire information and further links to information important to the development of site specific situational awareness.

The items mentioned above are merely a fraction of the items to discuss or investigate daily with you crew and pertain to pre-deployment preparedness. The next segment, intelligence gathering and processing while at an incident, is of paramount importance to the company’s safety and the officer’s overall awareness. Without question, one of the most imperative responsibilities of the company officer in a wildland incident is to quickly and constantly evaluate the potential of the fire. This critical function is the foundation upon which crew safety and tactical success is built. Although this appears to be a relatively simple concept, the complex interaction of wildland fire behavior variables, yielding incident specific fire behavior, cannot be underestimated. 

The company officer, or any crew member for that matter, must remember to start with the basic analysis of fuels, weather and topography. These " ingredients”, that influence each other and are directly linked, can interact in a multitude of combinations yielding both favorable and unfavorable fire behavior. It is the resultant fire behavior, produced by the ingredients, that determines our actions, our effectiveness, and ultimately determines our safety. The goal of this frequent analysis is to keep an accurate awareness of the fire potential at hand to produce behavior that could negatively impact personnel safety.

Simply put, the ingredients on any given day, in any given location, combine in a recipe to produce a product. The product of this unique sight and time specific recipe is the observed fire behavior. Change any one of the ingredient’s parameters, the fire behavior will change. Instinctively all firefighters know this interrelationship of ingredients, but applying these instincts, in a timely manner, is the key to safe operations. The interactions of the recipe ingredients changes in complexity over time and space. The ability to process all of the variables improves with experience and training, but is unfortunately subject to distraction, fatigue, complacency and a multitude of other factors, that erode our effectiveness in this important task. 

Available to firefighters at a wildland incident are numerous decision tools including but not limited to, fire behavior processors, nomograms, charts and computer software. However, none of these are intended to override the irreplaceable tool of the Firefighter’s brain. Instead these tools serve to help ratify, or clarify, what intuitively firefighters should be thinking while operating at a fire of any size and complexity. There is no doubt that fire behavior is a dynamic force that moves, breaths, accelerates, slows, propagates, and can in some cases defies logical thought, and in some cases, even the most seasoned veteran personnel underestimate potential. However, this fact should just strengthen the resolve of all personnel to consistently, frequently, and accurately evaluate the fire’s potential. 

To assist with this decision process, I would propose a simple question to be asked by all personnel engaged in fire suppression at any location on the incident. 

“Where do I want to be, and where do I not want to be when this fire makes its move?” 

Overview from Accident Site looking north to Cabazon

Pictured above is a photo that was used in the Esperanza Fire Fatality Investigation Report. Clearly evident in the picture is the path taken by the approaching fire and where the most intensity was delivered: “the gun sight.”

This simple question of how to stay out of the “gun sight” is the most direct application of the complex analysis of fire behavior related to the most important strategic goal at any incident: personnel safety. Although recipes produced by the environment can in some cases present significant challenges to fire suppression operations, answering the question stated above, can position personnel, it is hoped, in a safe location when fire behavior intensifies. 

If we as company officers are disciplined in our asking of this question, and evaluating the potential of the recipe presented today, inherently personnel safety is improved. This intellectual assessment does not have to develop into a prolonged analysis; in fact I would encourage personnel to refrain from “paralysis by analysis” during suppression, because we have to make decisions and act. Instead objectively look at the fire behavior inputs; temperature, RH, slope, aspect, fuels, etc., apply that to the topography, and answer the question of are you in a safe location or not. 

This is a proactive thought process, if completed accurately, should assist personnel with the critical decision of locating a safe area to operate. Furthermore, the answer to the question of where to be or not to be could quite possibly place personnel in the desirable position of pleasantly surprised, as opposed to tragically surprised during fire behavior changes. Call it proactive, risk benefit analysis, worst case scenario planning, or all of the above; the bottom line is by evaluating the potential presented by the fire environment on every shift, day and night, one is better situated to answer the question of where is the gun sight pointed now and how to avoid it. Therefore, the next time you find yourself at a wildland fire incident, get your hands on an accurate topo map, locate a solid weather forecast, analyze the state of the fuels, and then; evaluate the fire’s potential today.

Post incident/season critique and adjustments

Now that the assignment, or season, is over it is time to reflect back on the experience and immediately begin to correct any critical or potential safety issues that may have arisen. I don’t want to enter into a discussion of “what if,“ but suffice to say, as a company officer you will know when there is need of correction. Don’t let bad habits develop false confidence, coach, correct, explain, remind; do all you can to reiterate the importance of safety and hazard recognition on the next assignment. There are many ways to accomplish this, but the most simple and effective is to conduct a daily After Action Review, or AAR. This simple non-punitive or non-inflammatory process, that simply identifies what was the mission for the day, was it completed and finally how can we improve on the process. It is quick, informal and best conducted immediately after a shift while the events and situations are fresh in everyone’s mind. Encourage the crew to not only be vocal with the items that did not go well, but complete the circle and offer a solution to the issue. Another technique that I have found useful is to bring the fire assignment experience back to the next pre-season refresher season. This is simply done by keeping incident maps and Incident Action Plans, or IAPs, to use as training aids. These again cost your department nothing and provide the ability for those that participated in the incident to share their experience and provide that personal account of what the fire did that day based on the days forecast and area on the map it was burning. Together with pictures and video that may have been captured during the assignment, one now has the beginning of an excellent scenario based training library. The bottom line is never pass an opportunity to conduct corrective training. Time spent in this endeavor will benefit you, increase the safety of your crew and lead to an overall better performance on any incident large or small, local or regional. I can not over state enough; if there is a deficiency identified in any aspect of you Agency, from training to equipment, do not fail to bring it to the surface. Identification of the problem is the start of the corrective process, but rise to the challenge of being part of the solution for your organization by having clear suggestions for the problems listed.

In closing, the few suggestions I have made are only a start, a small sampling of some of the possibilities that are available to company officers across the nation. The responsibilities have without doubt increased at the officer level and the multitude of tasks assigned to and individual are constantly pulling in every direction. Please make pre-season training a priority, deliver it to your crew, and bring that drive for protecting those you are responsible for to the training ground to assist you with delivering the necessary wildland safety information in a compelling way. Training delivered with this type of passion is never forgotten, and will benefit you and your crew the next time you are trying to stay out of the gun sight.

 

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