wildland fire crews: fire shelters

From the youtube summary for this video:

Fire shelter deployment from October 22, 2007 by Orange County Fire Authority engine crews. Photos by Karen Tapia Andersen of the Los Angeles Times. A presentation quality video (30 mb) can be downloaded from the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned website at this location (but only if you have quicktime pro).

I’ll tell you how the video ends, all fire firefighters in this fire shelter deployment incident survived. The video may be difficult to watch, but it is important. The fire spotted downslop from the twelve firefighters, and took a run up the hill. The fire fighters could not escape to safety (for example to a “black” or already burned area), so as a last resort, they deployed (crawled under) their shelters.

What are fire shelters? Fire shelters, designed to protect the occupant from being burned by flames, are just large enough for a person to crawl under. The firefighter lies face down on the ground, holding the shelter close to the ground, to protect their lungs from the heat of the flames and the smoke.

fire shelter: An aluminized tent offering protection by means of reflecting radiant heat and providing a volume of breathable air in a fire entrapment situation. Fire shelters should only be used in life threatening situations, as a last resort.

fire shelter deployment: The removing of a fire shelter from its case and using it as protection against fire.

[from National Wildfire Coordinating Group Incident Operations Standards Working Team (PMS 205), 2007. Glossary of Wildland Fire Terminology.

Here are some resources on fire shelters:

History of the Development of the Fire Shelter

US Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management, fire shelter information. This is a brief page with a couple of photos.

National Interagency Fire Center on fire shelters. There is a lot of information on this site, including, but not limited to the two documents below.

National Interagency Fire Center on fire shelters (as of 12/12/12)

The New Generation Fire Shelter. This is the publication that describes the new generation fire shelter. As I understand all wildland fire crews will be using the new generation fire shelter on or before January 1, 2010 and will be familiar with this document.

Tech Tip: What’s New in the New Generation Fire Shelter

I’d like to thank Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today News for his help in reviewing this article and being a second pair of eyes. Thanks Bill!