You firefighters in the eastern and southern United States — be careful with those leaf blowers. A case in point and an opportunity for a Lesson Learned:

Here is another one that is tool-related.

Thanks Chuck

A myth is developing at Redding, California’s Record Searchlight that the new protocols developed by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group about managing medical emergencies on incidents recommend or even mandate that accident victims on a fire arrive at an appropriate medical facility within the “Golden Hour”. We pointed out on July 4 that even though the myth is fueled by Jim Milestone, superintendent of the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, who was on the investigation team for Andrew Palmer’s fatal accident, the new protocols fall short of establishing target time frames for transporting a seriously injured patient.

Here is an excerpt from an editorial in the July 11 edition of the Record Searchlight that repeats their myth:

…Federal firefighters have taken the lesson from Palmer’s death and are drafting more detailed evacuation plans so they know not just how to get crews to a fire, but how to get injured colleagues out promptly. The goal is to reach a hospital within “the Golden Hour,” when experience shows emergency physicians have the best chance to save trauma victims’ lives.

Recommendations from the National Wildfire Coordinating Group also focus on creating a clear chain of command and communications so conflicting orders and information don’t make a bad situation even worse.

Bringing those lessons into the various fire agencies’ standard procedures would go a long way toward saving firefighters’ lives, but the diverse ecosystem of local, state and federal fire teams, along with private contractors, means even lifesaving changes can take time to filter through the ranks.

Delay carries a heavy cost. Over the past decade, an average of 22 firefighters have died each year battling wildland blazes in the United States. And with long-term trends seeming to bring worse fire seasons with ever-larger acreages burning, the hazards for the men and women who keep our homes safe are only likely to grow.

For the fire commanders and agency bosses who can push for progress toward greater safety, it’s hard to see a better motivation than those nearly two dozen deaths that happen in a typical year. The lives that tighter evacuation procedures might save could easily be those of the firefighters on your crew. Those heroes deserve every chance we can provide to make it home.

I wish it were true that the NWCG protocols established patient transport time frames, but until they do, the Record Searchlight needs to get their facts straight.

Thanks Dick

On June 2 Wildfire Today covered the release of some new protocols developed by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group about managing medical emergencies on incidents. Redding, California’s Record Searchlight, which frequently covers wildfire issues, has an article published yesterday about the new policy, including quotes from several recognizable names in the wildland fire community. Read the article — but here is an excerpt:

“They are really going to set up plans to get firefighters out within an hour,” said Jim Milestone, superintendent of the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. “The idea is to get that person out of there.”

Like generals planning for battle, managers of major forest fires meet early each morning to devise the day’s strategies.

As part of the planning in the past they’ve outlined basic plans for treating fire-line injuries, discussing only generally how fire crews will respond to a severe injury on the fire line, Milestone said.

This fire season the plans will be more detailed and focused on how to retrieve injured firefighters as quickly as possible.

On the Shasta-Trinity National Forest this year there will be an emphasis on continually creating fire plans that include “solid and effective” medical evacuation plans, said Jim Peña, the U.S. Forest Service’s deputy regional forester for California.

“The idea is to assess where we work in the forest,” he said. “This isn’t just focused on fire.”

The goal is to avoid another death like that of Andrew “Andy” Palmer.

Palmer, 18, of Port Townsend, Wash., died after an 8-foot section of pine tree fell on him while he fought a fire near Junction City in 2008. Palmer’s family and fire officials who reviewed a federal investigation of his death say it could have been prevented by a quicker medical response. The tree broke Palmer’s left leg and severed his femoral artery, but Palmer lay on the ground for more than 2½ hours as firefighters tried to figure out how to get him to a hospital.

A better rescue plan could have saved Palmer’s life, said Milestone, who was a member of the federal team that investigated the death.

I wish what Superintendent Milestone said were true:

They are really going to set up plans to get firefighters out within an hour.

Unfortunately, the new NWCG protocols fell short of establishing target time frames for getting a seriously injured patient to an appropriate medical facility. During the development of the strategy and tactics for a fire, the feasibility of timely medevac must be considered. If, for example, the location of a remote work assignment during a night shift would require 30 minutes of on-scene treatment, then a 90-minute carry-out followed by a one-hour ground ambulance ride, then the Medical Unit Leader, the Safety Officer, the Operations Section Chief, and the Incident Commander need to discuss ways to mitigate that problem.

While the new NWCG protocols are a step in the right direction, they should have also recommended transport time frames and the number of EMTs to be assigned to an incident.

Thanks Dick

This calendar was created and maintained by Kathy Komatz of the National Park Service and the Six Minutes for Safety Work Group. Kathy recently won the Paul Gleason Award for developing an informational safety series of vignettes titled “This Day in Wildland Fire History.

Bookmark this page:

http://wildfiretoday.com/2010/05/20/six-minutes-for-safety-calendar/

The concept of Six Minutes for Safety is that each day firefighters will hold a daily six-minute safety meeting based on the topic from this calendar.

Kathy Komatz of the National Park Service in Boise has received one of the five Paul Gleason Lead by Example Awards for 2009 (as detailed at RamblingChief.com).  Komatz received the award for developing “This Day in Wildland Fire History”, which in association with Six Minutes for Safety provides lessons learned based on what I call “infamous fires”. Komatz’s information is available from a calendar on the Wildfire Lessons Learned web site, or this page. The calendar appears to be still under development, but the page that lists all of the “This Day in Wildland Fire History” topics has them all, without the dates. A presentation that is part of this year’s wildland fire refresher provides more details about this project.

(Update 5-20-2010; the Six Minutes for Safety Calendar can be found HERE.

Years ago I began compiling a list of “Infamous Wildland  Fires Around the World“, the latest version of which is on our Documents page. It includes short descriptions of fatality and other significant fires listed by date of the year. As I wrote in the document:

There are several purposes of doing the research and compiling this list by calendar date.  It is hoped that individuals and organizations involved in fire, especially wildland fire, will mark these dates on a calendar.

By having these wildland fires on a calendar, the lessons learned from even a 150 year old fire will be less likely to be forgotten.  An unforgotten lesson learned may save the life of a current or future firefighter.

I am pleased to see that Komatz is listing lessons learned opportunities on a calendar. There is no point in re-inventing the wheel, or re-inventing a lesson learned, if someone has already done it for you, at great cost.

And congratulations to the other four winners of the Paul Gleason awards for 2009: Stan Stewart, Pete Glover, Steve Holdsambeck, and especially Dennis Baldridge, a fellow former El Cariso Hot Shot.