New offensive plays for 2003 fire season
For many years, natural resource and wildland fire agencies have used the concept of a “tailgate safety session” to ensure the safety of their workers. When the emergency workers and firefighters arrive at the work site, they gather around the back of their vehicle, or the tailgate, and discuss for a few minutes what hazards they will face and what steps are needed to mitigate them.
This new column will serve in a similar capacity, helping to keep the fire community informed of new information, issues and events in the wildland fire safety field.
The Third International Wildland Fire Conference will take place in Sydney, Australia, Oct. 3-6, and will include a major session addressing “Balancing the Threat to Firefighter Safety and Residents.” Previous International Wildland Fire Conferences took place in Boston (1989) and Vancouver (1997). The program on Oct. 4 will include a half-day session on firefighter safety that will include speakers from Australia, Canada, Chile and the United States. For more information on this important wildland fire conference, check out www.wildlandfire03.com.
During 2002, 23 individuals in the United States died while engaged in wildland fire activities, and another 46 were entrapped while attempting to suppress wildland fires. The fatalities included 10 from vehicle accidents, six from aircraft accidents, and four while taking or preparing for the Work Capacity Test. To review the specifics on these fatalities and entrapments, go to the Safety & Health Working Team site at www.nwgc.gov.
A new fire shelter will become available to U.S. firefighters beginning with the 2003 fire season. It will replace the existing shelter over the next few years as production meets the demand of the wildland community. The new shelter significantly improves the protection from radiant and convective heat offered by the current model. The publication and video used for fire shelter training also are being updated to reflect the changes in the shelter and will be available in late 2003. For more information on the new shelter, check out the U.S Forest Service FA&M Web site at www.fs.fed.us/fire/safety/shelter/shelter_index.html or contact Project Leader Leslie Anderson at the Missoula Technology & Development Center at landerson@fs.fed.us.
A firefighter employed by the North Carolina Division of Forest Resources died on April 28 shortly after completing the “Pack Test” to qualify him for fire suppression duties at the “arduous” level.
The Seventh Annual International Wildland Fire Safety Summit, sponsored by the International Association of Wildland Fire and hosted by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, will take place in Toronto Nov. 18-20. Previous safety summits have occurred in Portugal, Australia, Canada and the United States, and have explored many of the critical fire safety issues of the day. For more information about the Toronto Fire Safety Summit, check out www.safetysummit.org.
In late February the wildland fire safety world lost one of our best when Paul Gleason died from cancer in Colorado. [Ed.: See Final Thoughts, page 34.] Paul had served for many years as superintendent of the Zig Zag hotshot crew, developed and preached the concept of LCES, and won the IAWF's Safety Award in 1998. Since his retirement from the federal service, Paul has been on the forestry faculty at Colorado State University.
The Linton bushfire burnover in December 1998 that killed five volunteer firefighters from Australia's Country Fire Authority out of the Melbourne area has caused the Australian fire service to take a hard look at some of their operational practices, including the use/non-use of safety officers on larger bushfire incidents. The background information on the Linton fatalities, as well as much information from the coroner's inquiry into the deaths, can be found at www.cfa.vic.gov.au/Linton/index.html.
Fifteen-passenger vans have long been a popular way to transport crews to wildland fires, but the accident in Colorado in June 2002 that killed five firefighters has caused a lot of concern about their safety. [Ed.: See “What you don't know at the wheel can hurt,” March/April, available at www.wildfiremag.com.] For many years, the National Transportation Safety Board has been looking at the vans' safety record, and it isn't good. They seem to have a disproportionate tendency to roll over when involved in single-vehicle accidents, a rate about 50% higher than other vehicles. When fully loaded, and especially when roof racks are added to carry personal baggage (like Red Fire bags), the center-of-gravity of the vehicle is substantially raised. It's currently against federal law to sell 15-passenger vans for school-related transportation of students high school-aged or younger. For more information on the safety of 15-passenger vans, check out the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration Web site at www.nhtsa.gov/hot/15PassVans/index.htm.
The deaths of 13 firefighters at Mann Gulch, Mont., in 1949 was one of the most significant fire safety events in U.S. wildland fire history. It resulted in important changes in firefighter safety and also captured the imagination of the American public; the 1952 movie Red Skies of Montana was loosely based on the event, and Norman Maclean's best selling book Young Men and Fire is the classic study of not just the events of the fire, but an exploration into the minds and attitudes of all those involved. A science class at Helena, Mont., High School, near the Mann Gulch site, has created a Web site showing numerous recent photos of the Mann Gulch area. For anyone interested in fire history and fire behavior, it's an excellent reference. Go to http://mgulch.freeyellow.com.
Dick Mangan retired in December 2000 as the program leader for fire and aviation at the U.S. Forest Service Technology and Development Center in Missoula, Mont. He received a bachelor's degree in forestry from Humboldt State University, and worked on national forests at the ranger district and forest levels in Oregon and Washington. His last position prior to the Technology and Development Center was as forest fire staff officer on the Ochoco National Forest in Prineville, Ore. Mangan is a qualified operations section chief 1, safety officer and planning section chief. He served from 1994-1999 as ops section chief on a national IMT. He has written numerous papers and technical reports on fire safety, and received the Geico Insurance Public Service Award for Fire Safety in 2000. In retirement, he is owner/president of Blackbull Wildfire Services and raises Black Angus cattle in Missoula.
Firefighter safety is best served when everyone involved in the business is aware of safety risks, hazards, problems and things that are happening to mitigate them and make firefighters safer. If you have material to contribute to “Tailgate Safety Session,” drop an e-mail to blackbull@bigsky.net.
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