wildland firefighter safety: training

Among the important things that I have learned in the ten years that I have been writing this blog on aerial wildland firefighting is the importance of training. All new wildland firefighters, whether they be entirely ground based, smokejumpers, tanker and helicopter pilots, ground-based support go through training when they first sign on. Often there is annual refresher training each year, for example an established crew may devote some time at the beginning of their season to any refresher training in addition to physical and endurance training in preparation for the fire season.

I have the utmost respect for any and all wildland firefighters whether they be ground-based or pilots or ground support staff. As I was reflecting on what I, someone who is not any kind of firefighter can say about training, I thought about a friend who was an airtanker pilot told me years ago about flying tankers, he said "see, I told you it is complicated." I thought about that phrase this week as I spent a few hours looking around for appropriate videos that I might share with you. Training, whether it be annual or refresher, is somewhat complicated. I feel that there is no way that I can adequately try to write about wildland firefighter training because it is not something that I have been through. Further, I quickly found that there is a lot of information out there, too much for one blog post, or even a series., I might well get in over my head if I am not careful.

But I did find a couple of videos in my wonderings on the internet this week that I am sharing with you to give us, who are not wildland firefighters, a very small taste of how new wildland firefighting recruits are trained. Perhaps the training will be different for your State agency or your nearby federal agency, but I think that you will get the idea. 

The first video is from the South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership summarizing a week long training for new wildland firefighter recruits in a 2018 Carmen Thomas Memorial Guard School. For more information on what you will see in the video below, go to the Guard School 2018: Wildland Firefighter Training Youtube Video and click the about tab, which says in part: 

Among other subjects, the course covered classes on safety, personal protective equipment, medical, mutual respect, fire behavior, weather impacts on fire, safety equipment usage, firefighting equipment usage, wildland urban interface concerns, hazardous materials awareness, transportation safety, communications, map reading and fire investigations. Training culminated with a live fire exercise where students demonstrated their proficiency by combatting a prescribed fire initiated in a controlled environment by school cadre.

The second video is from KTVB 7, a news feature showing training of new wildland firefighters in Idaho.

direct link to video on Youtube from KTVB 7

wildland firefighter safety: fire shelters

Perhaps the most important piece of protective equipment that each wildland firefighter carries is her or his fire shelter. Deploying a fire shelter is a last resort when wildland firefighters are in danger of a burn over and are not near a safe zone. My purpose here is to refer to this piece of equipment, showing through a couple of videos how the shelter is deployed and also some survival stories.

Deploying a fire shelter, the fire shelter in the video is a demonstration model. A real fire shelter can only be deployed once. Learning how to deploy a fire shelter and practice doing so is a part of the annual and refresher training that wildland firefighters go through. 

Direct link to video from from The Bulletin on deploying a fire shelter

In the next video, one of thirteen videos from Wildland Fire LLC that Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today shared in April of this year, you will hear wildland firefighters who have deployed their fireshelters talk about their shelter deployment stories.

Fireshelter Deployment Stories from Wildland Fire LLC

Wildland firefighter safety: personal protective equipment

Those of you reading this who are not wildland firefighters have probably seen images or pictures of wildland firefighters wearing special clothing, boots, hard hats, etc and other personal protective equipment designed to keep wildland firefighters safe from burn and other injuries while on the fireline. The yellow flame resistant shirt (sometimes known as nomex and the flame resistant trousers, usually a dark color are likely familiar to many of you. I write about personal protective equipment (PPE) because wearing or carrying this PPE is very important for the safety of the wildland firefighters. I believe that many support personal on a wildfire will also wear PPE. It is not enough to wear the PPE, but as the video that I am sharing below points out, the PPE must be used safely.

I wanted to provide a list in this article of what PPE is, While I understand that there may be some variation within the United States and Internationally, I believe that this list will give you an idea of what PPE is. This comes from the 2019 edition of the Red Book: Interagency Standards for fire and Aviation Operations, Chapter 7 on Safety and Risk Management, pages 169-70, accessed from The National Interagency Fire Center on June 24, 2019.

Wildland Fire Field AttirePolyester, polypropylene, and nylon materials are not to be worn, because most synthetic fibers melt when exposed to flame or extreme radiant heat. Personnel should wear only undergarments made of 100 percent or the highest possiblecontent of natural fibers, aramid, or other flame-resistant materials. 

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) All personnel are required to use personal protective equipment (PPE) appropriate for their duties and/or as identified in JHAs/RAs. Employees must be trained to use safety equipment effectively.
Flame resistant clothing should be cleaned or replaced whenever soiled,especially when soiled with petroleum products. Flame resistant clothing will be replaced when the fabric is so worn as to reduce the protection capability of the garment or is so faded as to significantly reduce the desired visibility qualities. 

Required Fireline PPE•Wildland fire boots5
•Fire shelter (M-2002)
•Helmet with chinstrap
•Goggles/safety glasses (as identified by JHAs/RAs) •Ear plugs/hearing protection
•National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1977 compliant long-sleeved flame resistant shirt (yellow recommended)
•NFPA 1977 compliant flame resistant trousers
•Leather or leather/flame resistant combination gloves. Flame resistant flight gloves or NFPA 1977 compliant Driving Gloves can be used by heavy equipment operators, drivers and fireline supervisors when not using fireline hand tools.
•Additional PPE as identified by local conditions, Safety Data Sheet (SDS), or JHA/RA18 ○FS – Shirt, trousers, and gloves used by USFS personnel must meet Forest Service specification 5100-91 (shirt), 5100-92 (trousers), 6170-20 5 (gloves), or be NFPA 1977 compliant.

Wildland Fire Boot StandardPersonnel assigned to wildland fires must wear a minimum of 8-inch high, lace-type exterior leather work boots with lug melt-resistant soles. The 8-inch height requirement is measured from the bottom of the boot’s heel to the top of the 25 boot. Alaska is exempt from the lug sole requirement. All boots that meet the wildland fire boot standard as described above are required for firefighting and fireline visits, considered non-specialized PPE, and will be purchased by the employee (including AD/EFF) prior to employment. The agencies have authorized payment of a boot stipend. See agency specific guidance for implementation.

I am including a link to a webpage from Minnesota DNR on PPE because they add some things not included in the Red Book such as wearing all cotton garments under the shirt and pants, the types of socks to wear and wearing a flame resistant brush jacket. And they have a cool picture of a wildland firefighter.

Updated on December 20, 2020: The video that I linked to in the original article is no longer available.

Wildland firefighter safety: L.C.E.S.

I have been writing about wildland firefighter safety recently, for those who are interested see my June 14th article on the 10 Standard Fire Orders and my June 17th article on the 18 Situations that Shout Watch Out. Both articles include short videos that you can watch.

I continue with wildland firefighter safety with L.C.E.S.
Lookouts
Communications
Escape Routes
Safety Zones

According to the video you will see below, L.C.E.S. does not replace the 10 Standard Fire Orders and the 18 Situations that Shout Watchout (aka the 10 and 18). Rather L.C.E.S helps to reinforce and focus on important aspects of wildland firefighter safety.


Direct link to video from the National Wildfire Coordinating Group

I will be writing more about wildland firefighter safety in the coming days. I am still developing the rest of the articles in this series, please stay tuned. Also, the timing of the remaining articles in this series will depend on what else is going on as we move into the summer wildfire season.

2019 wildfire season: two recent wildfires in NJ

I had been thinking recently that in many parts of the United States that it is always wildfire season. Further, I had also been thinking that wildfires often can and do crop up outside of the usual wildfire season, which for New Jersey is in the spring before the trees leaf out and then later in the fall. And of course a prolonged dry spell or drought can increase the risk of wildfires. Lastly, wildfires can and do happen on days when there is no elevated fire danger or red flag warnings. It always pays to be prepared.

This past weekend I found out about two wildfires in central and southern New Jersey that occurred over a week ago. What can I say? I was not keeping up with my usual internet sources of wildfire information from the NJ Forest Fire Service. Having been suitably embarrassed, I am being more diligent in checking out my sources on a regular basis. Not that I will hear about every wildfire in New Jersey, as I don't usually hear about the frequent small wildfires that are quickly contained.

I want to thank my friends from the NJ Forest Fire Service Section B10 where I saw information on these two fires last weekend. Their website has since been updated but I will refer you to their tweets.

Mordecai Swamp Fire: This wildfire was first reported either June 4th or June 5th, I am not quite sure, in a remote area of the Warton State Forest in Washington Township, Burlington County NJ. The fire burned approximately 90 acres. No houses were affected and there were no injuries. The fire was declared 100 percent contained on June 13th. See these June 5th and 6th tweets from the NJFFS Section B10 Twitter Page.

The Jack Swamp Fire was fire reported on either June 8th or June 9th, I think it was on June 9th. This wildfire was near the Burlington-Camden County border just southwest of Atsion Lake. Route 206 near Hammonton was closed for awhile (two tweets from the NJFFS Section B10 Twitter on June 9th that may be found here. The Jack Swamp Fire burned in a remote area, no structures were threatened and there were no injuries. I understand that a helicopter flew the fire, but I do not know if it had a bucket or if it was observation only. The fire was reported as being 100 percent contained on June 10th, see this June 10th tweet from the NJFFS Section B10 (with video from Fox 29 in Philadelphia). The NJ FFS monitored this wildfire for at least a couple of days after it was contained until rainfall fully extinguished the wildfire. The cause of this wildfire is under investigation.

Wildland firefighter safety: 18 Situations that Shout Watch Out

I wrote about the 10 Standard Firefighting Orders on June 14th, today I will write about the 18 Situations that Shout Watch Out. According to an article from the National Park Service which lists both the 10 Standard Firefighting Orders and the 18 Situations that Shout Watch Out:

These 18 situations are more specific and cautionary than the Standard Firefighting Orders. If firefighters follow the 10 Standard Firefighting Orders and are alerted to the 18 Watch-Out Situations, much of the risk of firefighting can be reduced.

The 18 Situations that Shout Watch Out are:

    1.   Fire not scouted and sized up.
    2.   In country not seen in daylight.
    3.   Safety zones and escape routes not identified.
    4.   Unfamiliar with weather and local factors influencing fire behavior.
    5.   Uninformed on strategy, tactics, and hazards.
    6.   Instructions and assignments not clear.
    7.   No communication link with crew members or supervisor.
    8.   Constructing line without safe anchor point.
    9.   Building fireline downhill with fire below.
    10. Attempting frontal assault on fire.
    11. Unburned fuel between you and fire.
    12. Cannot see main fire; not in contact with someone who can.
    13. On a hillside where rolling material can ignite fuel below.
    14. Weather becoming hotter and drier.
    15. Wind increases and/or changes direction.
    16. Getting frequent spot fires across line.
    17. Terrain and fuels make escape to safety zones difficult.
    18. Taking a nap near fireline.

Here is a short video about the 18 Situations that Shout Watch Out from the National Wildfire Coordination Group, Wildfire Safety Training Annual Refresher. It is just over six minutes.


Direct link to video

wildland firefighter safety: 10 standard fire orders

I have been reflecting on staying safe during wildfires recently so I decided to revisit the written tools that wildfire fighters use and commit to memory in order to be safe. The are the 10 standard fire orders, 18 watch out situations and L.A.C.E.S. in three articles, the first one being today on the 10 standard fire orders. I know that these written lists are used in the United States, I do not know if they are used internationally but I'd imagine that other countries have similar lists. I will then follow up on those three articles by looking at other ways wildland firefighters stay safe such as the use of fire shelters and the personal protective equipment that they wear.

10 Standard Fire Orders

These fire orders are grouped as follows: fire behavior, fireline safety, and organizational control. The National Wildfire Coordinating Agency has a nice short webpage listing the 10 Standard Fire Orders. The 10 Standard Fire Orders are:

Fire Behavior
1. Keep informed of fire weather conditions and forecasts.
2. Know what the fire is doing at all times.
3. Base all actions on current and expected behavior of the fire.
Fireline Safety
4. Identify escape routes and safety zones and make them known.
5. Post lookouts when there is possible danger.
6. Be alert. Keep calm. Think clearly. Act decisively.
Organizational Control
7. Maintain prompt communications with your forces, your supervisor, and adjoining forces.
8. Give clear instructions and be sure they are understood.
9. Maintain control of your forces at all times.
If 1-9 are considered, then...
10. Fight fire aggressively, having provided for safety first.

Here is a short video from the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, Wildfire Safety Training and Annual Refresher (WFSTAR) it is under five minutes.



Direct link to video from National Wildfire Coordinating Group

2019 wildfire season: reflections on being safe

As we enter the summer wildfire season here in the United States, I have been thinking that many say that wildfire season is not just limited to one or two prime wildfire seasons but is indeed year round in many areas. Even if you don't live in an area that is now prone to wildfires year round, it is always a good idea for us to think of how we can be safe. Just as we on the east coast should have an evacuation kit ready to go in the event of a hurricane or tropical storm, those in areas prone to wildfires year round or a part of the year should have an evacuation kit and a place where you will meet up with your family if evacuations are necessary and you are not able to evacuate together. One thing I have learned in the ten plus years I have been writing this blog on aerial wildland firefighting is that one never knows when a wildfire might crop up in your area. So it is good to always be prepared and to be as safe as we can be. I have been thinking about how we can be safe from wildfires recently, and I have some thoughts and reflections I will share. Please be safe.

How about the area around your house? Are fire hazards removed? If not and especially if you live in a wildfire prone area of your state, visit your state wildfire agency and they should have resources to help you. One national program to promote residential wildfire safety is called Firewise USA, and they have a website chock full of information. Another good resource for homeowners is the prevention and education page from The National Interagency Fire Center. Finally, don 't forget to checkout Smokey the Bear's website with a lot of good information for all ages, including a wildfire prevention how-to page.

I live in an area of New Jersey that is at lower risk for wildfires than other areas, so I admit that the area around my house is not completely fire safe. At some point I may pay the price for this, I hope not. But if I lived in the Pine Barrens in central and southern New Jersey or along and near the Kittatiny Ridge as well as areas of the New Jersey Highlands in northern New Jersey, I hope that I would take more care in keeping combustibles away from my home.

Don't throw a cigarette out the window of your car. If it is very dry and you are driving there are a couple of things you can do to prevent wildfires, be cognizant on if a tail pipe under your car might be dragging and if you get a flat, don't drive on the rim

Follow any burn and campfire restrictions, and if it is legal for you to purchase and use fireworks or sparklers please do not do so when it is very dry.. If you are camping and you are allowed to build a campfire, only use a designated fire pit and be sure to fully extinguish the fire, cool to the touch, before you leave.

We all need to heed voluntary and mandatory evacuation orders, whether they be for a wildfire, weather related, or a hazardous spill. I live a couple miles from a freight rail line, you never know. If you want a heads up about coming fire danger, follow your local National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office, go here for a national map, and click as close as you can to the area where you live to be taken to your local NWS Weather Forecast Office. The NWS has a nice wildfire safety page with all the information you will need to be prepared, take some time to go to this page and read it. If you read nothing else, read this page on Fire Weather Watches and Red Flag Warnings.

Residents and business owners can help the firefighters by being safe, and following evacuation orders. Clearing combustibles from around your house and using, as required, construction materials that resist flames helps.

Regarding air tankers and helicopters that fly fires, remember that tankers and helicopters can not fly if it is too windy. The exact criteria for winds that will shut down an aircraft depends on the type of aircraft. Further, they may not be able to fly if visibility is too low. Any lightning storm will shut down air operations. The pilots want to help the firefighters on the ground but they also want to be safe. Likewise, wildland firefighters are trained to be safe, I'll write about that in a few days.

2019 wildfire season: first IMET deployment

The first National Weather Service Incident Meteorologist (IMET) was deployed on June 9th. An IMET from the NWS Tucson Arizona Weather Forecast Office was deployed to the Elk Fire that is currently burning in the Gila National Forest. According to a comment from the IMET office on this NWS IMET Facebook post on June 9th, this is their second latest start in 35 years. IMETs save lives by providing incident specific weather forecasts so that the wildland firefighters have up to date weather information specific to the incident. Personally, I am not reading anything into the late deployment of the first IMET. I have a creepy feeling that this is going to be a very busy fire season.

At the time that I am writing this post, the Elk Fire started on June 6th and has burned about 500 acres. From the incident overview that I accessed on the Elk Fire Inciweb page just now:

The Elk Fire, approximately 500 acres, is burning on National Forest System lands on the Quemado Ranger District, Gila National Forest. The strategy for this incident is to suppress the fire to the smallest fire footprint. Lack of access and resistance to control, the ability of firefighters to suppress this fire will be extremely difficult and limited. (accessed from Elk Fire Inciweb page on June 10, 2019)

I wrote a post in August 2018 about what IMETs do, including a video and links to other articles I wrote about IMETs.

IMETS save lives!

75th anniversary of D Day Invasion of Normandy

Sometime late at night on June 5 into June 6, 1944, 800 planes took off from Duxford in England to fly across the English Channel as a part of the Allied invasion of Normandy, France (D-Day). This year, 2019, marks the 75the anniversary of the D-Day. To mark this 75th anniversary of D-Day, 2 1historic aircraft -- including 15 DC-3s and C-47s from the United States -- took off from Duxford, England.

I will never forget what D-Day stands for, remembering all those young men who landed and then died at Normandy, especially those in the first wave. Other young men lived to land at and fight at Normandy, slowly working their way inland. I share this 12-minute video of these 21 aircraft that took off from Duxford, England to honor all those who fought and died at Normandy. According to this fine article from the AOPA (including a must see slideshow) at least four of the aircraft participating in the 75th anniversary commemoration of D-Day flew in the 1944 invasion: That's All Brother who led the way in 1944 and again this year, D-Day Doll, Placid Lassie, and Virginia Ann. I saw the first three within the first couple of minutes of the video. I saw Virginia Ann later on. I don't know about you, but I found this video very moving.


Direct link to Daks over Normandy on Youtube

There is a lot written about the 75th anniversary of D-Day. I am sharing three articles that I liked, note that there is a paywall for the New York Times and the Washington Post but you are allowed a few free visits each month.

New York Times, brief history of D-Day and Putlizer Prize winning Ernie Pyle (June 5, 2019)
New York Times, photo essay of 1944 invasion (June 6, 2019)
Washington Post (May 30, 2019) Barry Svriuga writes about the secret journal his Grandfather kept on his experiences on D-Day in 1944

Being safe and weather aware with my weather radio

About four years ago, I purchased a weather radio equipped with S.A.M.E. technology. S.A.M.E. stands for Specific Area Message Encoder. What this special weather radio does for me is that the S.A.M.E. technology is can receive tone alerted advisories, watches, and warnings specific to the New Jersey county where I live. There are a long list of weather and related events that my weather radio can transmit, see this list from Midland USA (the manufacturer of my radio). As I understand it, when my National Weather Forecast Weather Forecast Office (WFO) at Mt. Holly, NJ issues advisories, watches, and warnings for certain events, those with S.A.M.E. weather radios will receive a tone-alerted statement with an audible recording alerting us of a specific hazard. This alert-toned statements are automatic, I don't have to do anything.

The list of what are known as event codes that S.M.A.R.T. equipped weather radios can transmit is long. While not every code on the list will be relevant for your area, your WFO is capable of transmitting any code on the event code list. There are event codes on the list for fires, including wildfire watches and warnings.

The list of event codes is much, much longer than the WEA event alerts those of you who have WEA enabled smart phones will receive. We have received three types of WEA alerts, Flash Flood Warnings, Tornado Warnings, and a Snow Squall Warning. We could receive a WEA hurricane warning, it is hurricane season after all.

The radio is programmable, I have it set to default so I receive most alert codes except for some administrative and testing codes.

My weather radio lives in my home office on a shelf near a window for better reception, and it has battery back-up for use during power outages. Its only and important purpose is to provide me with advisories, watches, and warnings issued by my National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office.

As regular readers know, I am a big proponent of being safe. For me that means being weather aware. I got my weather radio sometime after Super Storm Sandy hit New Jersey because it was time to upgrade and get a new weather radio.

During the winter, I would get the occasional tone-alerted blizzard or flash freeze warning. During the spring, summer and fall, I would get severe thunderstorm warnings and the occasional tornado watch. Once last fall I got a tornado warning, as we also did on our WEA enabled smart phones.

Last week my little Midland Weather Radio got quite a workout as we were under a tornado watch last Tuesday and Wednesday night The Mt. Holly Weather Forecast Area had one EF2 and three EF1 tornadoes last Tuesday and Wednesday (May 28th and 29th) along with flash flooding on Thursday night.  I lost count of how many tone-alerted notifications for watches and warnings I received, several over the course of May 28th and 29th and about three or four on May 30th.

While my specific location was not under a tornado warning last week, one night the northern and southern parts of my county were under tornado warnings (because the radio alerts for the whole county). The advantage here is that I knew what was going on around me.  I was as prepared as I could be, I have my safe place in our house along with a stash of water and food.

I have to admit that the alert-tone itself is quite startling. It is designed to get your attention and it certainly does. There are times when the tone scares the you-know-what out of me, especially if I have not heard the alert-tone in awhile.

The button that you see in the photo, allows me to listen to the weather radio where I will hear the local weather forecast and observations issued by my WFO

Please don't fly your drones near wildfires

I have nothing against unmanned aircraft systems, also known as drones. I really don't. There are many good uses for drones including but not limited to land surveying, storm surveys, and news outlets. I only ask that you do not fly your drones over wildfires, and please do not fly your drones in or near airspace over airports. A drone incursion into airspace over a wildfire means that air tankers, helicopters, lead planes, etc. can not fly. Drone incursions have shut down air operations over wildfires. This means that wildland firefighters on the ground are not getting needed air support. I posted the image from the US Forest Service and the video from the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) on April 13, 2016, I am reposting them here, please refer that post for additional resources.

Direct link to video from NIFC