The Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center is doing great work. I recently ran across a treasure trove of videos that they produced and uploaded to YouTube. Previously the LLC hosted the videos on their own site, but they have revisited that decision and are moving them to YouTube, where they are much more accessible.
The five videos about fire behavior that I embedded here have been on YouTube for one to two months but have only been viewed between 2 and 18 times as of February 3, 2012. These interviews with recognized experts in fire behavior are an attempt to capture and preserve knowledge that may help those coming up through the ranks. Maybe a viewer will learn something that might have taken them years otherwise, or it may prevent a firefighter from making a costly mistake.
Of the 12 videos in this “Learning from the Experts: Fire Behavior” series, I selected these 5 simply because I know or have been taught by these individuals, but check out the other 7 videos also.
In the video below: Richard Rothermel began research and writing on a fire spread model that is still taught in fire management classes today. This model of Rothermel’s is the basis for today’s S-490 class.
In the video below, Rob Seli addresses how to ask the right questions about the modeling tool.
In the video below, Patti Koppenol describes her process of assessing risk.
Continue reading “Learning fire behavior from the experts”