continued reflection for wildland firefighters during a pandemic

I wrote on March 30th that I am not going to write about the Covid-19 pandemic, this still holds true as I write this. However, as wildfire season ramps up in other parts of the country and we in New Jersey have a week or so more to go in our spring wildfire season, I continue to hold all of you who engage in wildland firefighting in any capacity in my daily meditations. This is nothing new as in the eleven years that I have writing this blog on aerial wildland firefighting hardly a day has passed when I did not think of all of you. What has changed for me at least is that I figure that there are two ways I can help you. One is to shelter-in-place, as I continue to do. The second and more to the point of this blog is to keep you in my daily meditations. So, to all of you who are in the wildland firefighting community in any capacity. this post is for you. I know enough to know that there are protocols being put in place for wildland firefighting during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Those of you who are interested in this topic will find Bill Gabbert's reporting on Covid-19 on Wildfire Today to be good reading. Bill is doing is usual excellent job of reporting and he has written a great deal about Covid-19 over the last month. It was Bill's reporting that provided some motivation for this post. Highlights include but are not limited to:

• his interview with the Forest Service about changes in wildland firefighting during the pandemic (April 11th)
• US Forest Service, NW Region, Covid-19 protocols (April 15th)
• Covid-19 protocols issued by the National Geographic Area eastern region (April 16th)
• Simulation for managing Covid-19 during wildfires (May 2nd)

Thank-you all wildland firefighters (ground based and in the air) and all support personnel for keeping us safe from wildfires.


Direct link to video on youtube