The Reverend, Remembered

By Kris Johnson

             

If you play hockey — or are just a fan — odds are you have already heard of the Stanley Cup. Well, if you are part of the Canadian wildland fire behavior community (and you didn't make the National Hockey League), there is a new trophy for you. It is called the Reverend.

The Reverend is a standard-issue drip torch made of a high-strength aluminum alloy tank with full-length handle, smooth-domed top to prevent fuel accumulation and check valve to protect against flashbacks. The only thing that separates the Reverend from a drip torch found on the fireline is that all of its jewelry has been chromed and its aluminum polished to a high luster. It is a shining example of what a drip torch should be.

But the Reverend is more than a trophy — it is a celebration of all the fire behavior specialists who have committed time and energy to advance the Canadian fire community. It will house 48 names of individuals who have helped develop and deliver the Canadian S-591 Wildland Fire Behavior Specialist course.

The Wildland Fire Behavior Specialist course represents the highest level of fire behavior training in Canada. The course was targeted both for those who are destined to become fire behavior analysts on incident management teams and currently practicing fire behavior analysts who could benefit from a refresher. Other personnel — such as senior air attack officers, fire modelers, ignition specialists or staff who will fill command, operations or planning functions — also attend this course. It covers the roles and responsibilities of a fire behavior analyst, characteristics of extreme and unusual fire behavior, fire environment monitoring, fire behavior calculations and interpretations, safety considerations, operational strategies, and fire briefings and forecasts.

The Reverend was created from a common drip torch to capture the "sharing of the flame of knowledge." It was named in honor of Rick Lanoville, one of the course's founders and a pioneer in the Canadian wildland fire behavior community. Lanoville, Canada's first dedicated fire behavior officer, was stationed at Fort Smith in the Northwest Territories. He contributed to the development and field adoption of the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System, of which the Canadian Fire Behavior Prediction System is a key component.

Lanoville helped shape a generation of fire behavior specialists in the Canadian fire community. He was a tireless advocate for the adoption and adaptation of a systematic approach to predicting wildland fire behavior. He became known as the Reverend because of his passion for fire behavior and his unique training and delivery style. He championed many methods of reducing the complex concepts associated with predicting and understanding wildland fire behavior to make them accessible to students of fire at all levels of education. It was all in a day's work if he had to dress up like a Red Book — the Canadian field guide to fire behavior used by operational staff — or have staff incant the assumptions and limitations of the fire behavior system.

The Reverend is just one small, positive step toward capturing and honoring the history and culture associated with the Canadian wildland fire behavior community. By capturing the names of the 48 instructors (from across Canada and the United States), the Reverend will help preserve the history of the people who gave their time and effort to better their community. The promise of the Reverend is that, after the 48 names have been added to the trophy, there still will be plenty of space to capture the names of future contributors and instructors.

Kris Johnson is the Manager of Fire Science for the Government of the Northwest Territories, Environment and Natural Resources, Forest Management Division in Fort Smith, Canada. His interests include communications, fire prevention, community protection, and fire behavior. Kris is Vice President of IAWF. He can be reached at kris_johnson@gov.nt.ca.