Proceedings of the 2003 International Wildland Fire Safety Summit Toronto, Ontario, Canada November 18-20, 2003 HOSTED BY: International Association of Wildland Fire Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources SPONSORED BY: Héli-Inter Hicks and Lawrence Wildfire Campbell Helicopters Ltd. Fire Logistics, Inc. What on Earth 1 This Safety Summit was made possible with generous support from our major sponsors: CAMPBELL HELICOPTERS LTD. 2 Proceedings of the 2003 International Wildland Fire Safety Summit Tuesday, November 18, 2003 Wildland Fire Operations Safety – A Comprehensive Program to Change a Culture ........................................................................................5 Redesigned Fire Shelter Now Available for Wildland Firefighters ....................................................................................................................8 Assessing the Need for Footwear with Protective Toecaps for Wildland Fire Operations in Alberta .................................................................12 Loggers and Logging Equipment to Fight Wildland Fires: Issues and Opportunities in Oregon ......................................................................14 Hazard Tree and Snag Safety .......................................................................................................................................................................18 Wednesday, November 19, 2003 Aviation Safety on the Fire Line ....................................................................................................................................................................22 The Safe and Economic Structural Health Management of Airtanker and Lead Aircraft Involved in Firebombing Operations ........................25 Improving Aerial Operations Safety ..............................................................................................................................................................29 Knowledge Management in the Wildland Fire Community ............................................................................................................................32 Predicting Spatially Explicit Burn Probabilities Across Forest Landscapes Under Extreme Weather Conditions .............................................36 High Resolution Surface Wind Simulations in Complex Terrain .....................................................................................................................40 A Low Cost Weather/Situation Monitor for Wildland Firefighter Safety ..........................................................................................................44 Keeping it Fresh: Fire Behaviour Safety Messages During Extended Fire Situations .....................................................................................48 Thursday, November 20, 2003 Improved Pulaski and a Safer Hand Tool System & Strategic Positioning to Eliminate Loss in the Interface .................................................53 The Use of Leading Indicators to Measure the Performance of the Occupational Health and Safety System ................................................57 Fire Behaviour/Safety in Mountain Pine Beetle Killed Stands in British Columbia .........................................................................................61 3 Wildland Fire Operations Safety – A Comprehensive Program to Change a Culture Edward D. Hollenshead National Fire Operations Safety Officer, USDA Forest Service, National Interagency Fire Center, 3833 S. Development Ave., Boise, ID 83705-5354, USA. Telephone: 208-387-5102 email: [email protected] The Goal Our very nature (that part of our nature that attracted us to this Operational error is inevitable. The key to error resistance is to business in the first place) impels us to take personal and corporate move away from conceptualizing safety as a goal, to realizing it as a risk when lives, property, and our natural heritage are threatened. Our result of sound operational practice, solidly anchored and guided by preeminent concern for firefighter safety requires an emphasis on strong strong and consistent organizational values. leadership, a comprehensive operational approach, and focused action. The Community The Concept Every success and every failure on the fireground is a success or The fire environment is risk filled and constantly changing, and failure of the fire community. Where there is a failure, there is failure in the role of incident management personnel is rapidly expanding. The the entire system. Where there is a solution, it involves the entire system. challenge is to mold and direct present-day firefighters into a highly effective firefighting workforce, one that is highly productive and The People inherently safe. The Application In order to become error resistant, an organization must focus on five key areas: Values A foundation of solid, shared values enables fire organizations to set decision parameters concerning risk and benefit. Values help guide others in crafting policy decisions toward expected outcomes, guide the leadership, training, and expectations of others, and stabilize the organization as the political winds blow. 5 Managing the Unexpected Organizations that are the most effective also tend to have the best safety record. Crews/teams/units that are resilient, effective, and safe maintain a healthy suspicion of situations that appear to be routine, realizing the unexpected can happen and planning for it. Absolutes Insist on absolutes; establish new or affirm existing standards, and demand professional, focused, and consistent adherence to them, never tolerating less than full compliance. Absolutes become firm rules of engagement, an organizational standard, and shape the identity of the organization. Leadership The fundamental building block of an error resistant firefighting workforce is leadership. Leaders are the source and teachers of culture, values, attitudes and behavior. It is critical that we reorient our training emphasis to human decision-making, leadership, and communication. Bias for Action Policy and rules cannot cover all the possible situations in the complex work environment of wildland fire suppression. Uncertainty and ambiguity are pervasive characteristics in nearly all fireline decision-making. Safe and effective firefighting requires a bias for action, realizing every tactical maneuver is predicated on accurate situational awareness, rapid and pinpoint risk identification and mitigation, and thoughtful, mindful decision making. Summary An error resistant organization is one that has established well- known, accepted, and practiced values. It provides emphasis and resources to constant drilling of learned skills in a realistic environment. It is an organization that maintains and insists on adherence to operational absolutes, displays a bias for thoughtful and mindful action, and is dedicated to developing its future leaders today. 6 Wildland Fire Operations Safety – A Comprehensive Program to Change a Culture NOTES: 7 Redesigned Fire Shelter Now Available for Wildland Firefighters Leslie L. Anderson USDA Forest Service, Missoula Technology and Development Center 5785 Hwy. 10 W, Missoula, MT 59808, USA Telephone: 406–329–1043 email: [email protected] Introduction In all, over 60 materials were considered for the new shelter. Materials showing potential for use in a fire shelter were first tested in The fire shelter is an element of personal protective equipment the small-scale. Seventeen different materials were then selected for used by wildland fire fighters in the United States. Fire shelters are testing as full-scale prototypes. Interest from private industry in the carried as a last resort to protect against heat injury during a wildfire development of a new shelter was high. Most of the private companies entrapment. The fire shelter was completely redesigned at the U.S. that submitted materials for consideration had expertise in fire Department of Agriculture Forest Service’s Missoula Technology and protection, but had little background in the requirements of a fire shelter. Development Center (MTDC) between 2000 and 2002. Distribution of So MTDC developed a fire shelter design that would allow testing of the new shelter design began in June 2003. promising materials in the full-scale. Most of the materials selected for The original fire shelter design, here referred to as the standard full-scale testing were sewn into shelters using the MTDC design. One fire shelter, has been in use for over 30 years. It is made of a laminate company, Storm King Mountain Technologies (SKMT), submitted fully- of fiberglass cloth and aluminum foil in the shape of a pup tent. It has designed shelters for testing. The SKMT shelters were tested in the saved more than 300 lives and prevented a similar number of serious form in which they were received. burn injuries. The standard shelter offers protection by reflecting radiant heat. However direct flame contact could rapidly damage the shelter. Results and Discussion Fatalities have occurred when flame contact was severe. The new fire shelter was designed to offer fire fighters better Based on the results of the small- and full-scale testing, the Federal protection from flames and convective heat while maintaining or Fire and Aviation Leadership Council, made up of fire managers improving the protection from radiant heat offered by the standard representing the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Interior, and State shelter. Considerations of weight,