John Hawkins, retired CAL FIRE Unit Chief and County Fire Chief, sent us a .pdf copy of the publication, Forest Fire Fighting Fundamentals, which I had not seen in many years. It may have been considered part of basic training for wildland firefighters, written by the US Forest Service and the agency then known as California Department of Forestry (CDF).
I’m not sure when the 58-page document was first published. As you can see above, it was received on the Medicine Bow National Forest in 1953. The National Museum of Forest Service History says it was published around 1945 (“1945 ca.”), but I wonder if there were multiple editions throughout a couple of decades.
There are many hand-drawn illustrations, many of which are attention-grabbing or funny, which may have made it easier to retain the lesson being taught.
There are no chain saws or air tankers, but you will see a dozer and a very early model helicopter. Numerous times it mentions “men” being used to fight fire, “Only physically fit men should be used,” for example.
It mentions aggressive initial attack, saying that when using direct attack, “You either ‘hit the head’ (point of most rapid spread) or start at the rear and work forward on both sides (flanks) at the fire edge and thus pinch out and control the head.”
It is very out of date in many respects, but the physics of fire and general principles of fire suppression and firefighter safety remain basically the same. It has been a while since I looked at what rookies are shown in basic firefighter training, S-130/190, but it would not hurt to let them peruse this document to help reinforce some fundamentals.
You can download the 2.3 MB document.
I have a copy of this obtained from my father Earl Harvey who was the first permanent Tanker Foreman at Lytle Creek on the San Bernardino in 1950’s. One of those who contributed to this great little booklet was Lynn Biddeson who was one of dads Rangers at LC, Lynn was followed by Ken Clark as Ranger. I talked with Lynn shortly before his unfortunate death and he told me the booklet was 1948 or 1949. I use copies in some of the training I conduct to show how far we have come from the basic principals which remain the same. My copy is going to the CDF Museum in San Bernardino. I was a CDF seasonal 1971, 1972 and 1973 and this Summer achieved 50 years in the fire service and 49 of those in wildfire. Dad is now 93 and retired after a career on the San Bernardino, El Dorado and Shasta Trinity and lives in WA .
Hi Bob,
Bill did an excellent article on Lynn https://wildfiretoday.com/2015/10/30/lynn-biddison-1927-2015/. Hope your dad is doing well. I retired in 2000.
My career in the fire service started in 1970 as a volunteer firefighter when I was still in highschool, I remember reading this manual. My Dad’s uncle was the head ranger at a Tillamook Oregon Forest and I remember visiting watch towers with him.
We have come a long ways, but still have to improve our capabilities and utilize today’s technology’s. Wildland firefighting continues to be a hard, dirty, dangerous job.
When I started with Cal Fire (then CDF) in 1966, this was one of the first handouts I received. This, and Principles of Forest Fire Management by Ray Clar and Len Chatten were the “bibles” of our training as seasonal firefighters back then. CDF had two training centers for permanent personnel, one at Ramona in Southern California, and the other at Ione in Northern California. Seasonal and LT personnel were pretty much trained on-the-job by their foremen and Forest Fire Truck Drivers. As Jerry Krause stated, some folks couldn’t read all that well, and one or two I remember could read very little, or not at all. It was a different time with very interesting co-workers and overhead.
In 1967 I was given a brand-new copy of this when I reported as a seasonal firefighter at CDF (California Division of Forestry – today’s Cal Fire) in the San Diego Ranger Unit (southern California). Happy seeing this shared. Reading it brings back those early times. It was a good tool, but the experience shared by ‘seasoned’ firefighters of all ranks was the best learning, along with hands-on firefighting on numerous fires throughout the state.
my first year with the BLM as a firecrew member was in 1973. I recall seeing those pictures in fire training material… they were evidently in use for a very long time…. good times.
My first year on a Forest Service District Three “Man” suppression crew was 1968. They sent us to a week long “Forest guard school”. My memory is they showed us a film called “Big John the smoke chaser”. I tried googling it and found only this edited version to be shown at modern day fire refresher courses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsbToWGOr74. My memory is also that the snag they call “Old Heart Breaker” John called an old “Widow” maker in the original film.
My wife was the first GS -4 Lookout Fireman on the same district. Before that, women lookouts could only be GS-3 Lookouts. the GS-4 Lookout Fireman Job description included taking initial attach action on any fire within a mile of the lookout. She had a red tin hard hat and smoke chaser pack just like the one in the film.
Tom,
I still have my “smoke chaser” pack, exactly like that in the film. And I was amazed to see Amazon selling the booklet… for FIFTY dollars! Google Books has the book, that anyone can read online. It appears brand-new. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Forest_Fire_Fighting_Fundamentals/D_ksAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
Hi Bill and Readers of Wildfires Today,
HISTORY is critically IMPORTANT. For contrary to current popular opinion the people of the past who have given us the world in which we now live were far more INTELLIGENT than we believe we are. Bob S just wrote, and I repeat because I consider it critically IMPORTANT: “Some of my co-workers with the USFS could not read very well, so the drawings actually were valuable tools for learning.” Have you ever read: A picture is worth a thousand words, or some paraphrase of this??? The person who CREATED this manual KNEW what they were doing!!!
Have a good day, Jerry
This was the material that I was taught in 1975. Some of my co-workers with the USFS could not read very well, so the drawings actually were valuable tools for learning.
I found a copy of that book in Kentucky at a helibase (Big Swag) about 2001, and realized the source of my first wildfire suppression training.