1 / 14

Fire Behavior as it Relates to Firefighter Safety: Six Key Points for Discussion MartyAlexander Canadian Forest Service

Fire Behavior as it Relates to Firefighter Safety: Six Key Points for Discussion MartyAlexander Canadian Forest Service Northern Forestry Centre Edmonton, Alberta 7 th International Wildland Fire Safety Summit Toronto, Ontario November 18-20, 2003. Key Point #1

lizina
Download Presentation

Fire Behavior as it Relates to Firefighter Safety: Six Key Points for Discussion MartyAlexander Canadian Forest Service

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Fire Behavior as it Relates to Firefighter Safety: Six Key Points for Discussion MartyAlexander Canadian Forest Service Northern Forestry Centre Edmonton, Alberta 7th International Wildland Fire Safety Summit Toronto, Ontario November 18-20, 2003

  2. Key Point #1 The International Association of Wildland Fire needs to consider broadening the “Agenda” of the International Wildland Fire Safety Summits to include the Public at Large

  3. Consider the recent fatalities in Europe and California • Focus/theme for 2004 Summit? • Future revisions of Davis & Mutch (1995) “Wildland Fires: Dangers and Survival” Book Chapter

  4. Key Point #2 Our Understanding of Fire Behavior Dynamics in Insect- and Disease-Killed Forest Stands is Extremely Poor to Non-existent

  5. “Dead forest” fuel types are increasing across North America • CFS/OMNR study in spruce budworm-killed stands • Support for experimental burning is critical

  6. Key Point #3 Avoid Placing too much Reliance on “Trigger Points” and Continue to Stress Fire Behavior Fundamentals and Systematically Assessing Potential Fire Behavior Using Existing Aids & Guides

  7. Searching for “silver bullets” • Crude but reliable FB guides & aids needed at the field level • Decision Trap #5 – Relying inappropriately on “rules of thumb”

  8. Key Point #4 The Use of Experienced Judgment in Assessing Fire Behavior needs to be Supported by more Documentation in the Future

  9. Firefighter’s expectations of how fires behave largely based on experience? • Gisborne (1948) commentary on experienced judgment • Wildland fire behavior case studies

  10. Key Point #5 A Concerted Effort is Needed to Bring the Fire Behavior and Human Behavior Specialists Together in Order to Improve Wildland Fire Safety in the Future

  11. Applies to fire operations personnel (firefighter-FB officer/analyst-IC) & the public • “Human factors” in predicting fire behavior • Karl Weick (2002) FMT article

  12. Key Point #6 Initial Attack Dispatch Guidelines Should Reflect the Current State-of-Knowledge Concerning Fire Behavior & Firefighting Resource Productivity/Effectiveness

  13. Firefighters dispatched to a newly reported fire should have a reasonably good chance of containing the fire at a reasonable size, otherwise their safety is being jeopardized • Role of fuels management

  14. PAYING TRIBUTE Paul Gleason (1946 – 2003) Fall 2003 issue of Fire Management Today dedicated to Paul

More Related