The physiological and psychological stress that wildfire personnel are put under every fire season has quickly moved from the margins of fire research to the mainstream, with global pathways for funding increasingly expanding, according to International Journal of Wildland Fire Associate Editor Anthony White.
White, in an editorial in the Journal, said he has seen an increased focus on firefighter health at many international wildfire conferences, including the 4th International Smoke Symposium in Tallahassee earlier this year. The growing focus led him to create a framework for researchers, agencies and decision-makers to integrate a health focus into how we manage fire and treat firefighter health as fire management infrastructure.
“This is not simply a matter of individual well-being: it influences operational capacity, how long crews can work safely, how reliably they can make decisions under pressure, how quickly they can recover between deployments, and whether they remain in the workforce,” White said in his editorial. “Yet in many jurisdictions, wildfire personnel still receive little or no coordinated, central monitoring and support.”
Through White’s lens, the health of wildfire crews isn’t a consideration after the fire is contained, but rather one of the many other considerations made when fire planning, like fuels, weather, logistics and equipment. White argues that the same logic should apply to people.
“If physical and mental health shape safety, effectiveness, and retention, then they belong in the core fire management framework, not at the periphery or as something to ‘follow up later,” White said. “The question, then, is what changes when we treat wildfire personnel health as infrastructure: something we prepare for before the season begins, manage actively during operations, and support intentionally during recovery.”
“The wildfire workforce is a precious resource. Sustaining it will require the same mindset applied to other infrastructure: plan early, manage actively, support recovery, and learn systematically, season after season.”
Anthony White is an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Wildland Fire. This editorial was written as part of IJWF’s initiative to spotlight emerging topics and foster discussion within the wildfire research community. White presented his research on wildfire smoke impacts on the brain at the 4th International Smoke Symposium in Florida, United States, earlier this year, and will speak again at the AFAC26 conference in Melbourne, Australia in August.
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