For a decade before Wildfire Today Founder and wildland firefighting stalwart Bill Gabbert’s death, he wrote numerous articles on what he called the “Holy Grail of wildland firefighting safety.”
Gabbert described this Grail as a system that could track the real-time location of firefighters and the wildfire they were fighting. The data should then be available in real time to key supervisors and decision makers involved in the operations and planning sections of wildfire response.
“It can save lives. There is no acceptable excuse for not getting this done,” Gabbert said in a 2019 article, explaining his “Holy Grail” definition. “The five federal land management agencies and the states with significant numbers of wildland firefighters need to implement a Holy Grail system as soon as possible … Government officials who drag their feet on this should have trouble sleeping at night.”
A company claimed to Wildfire Today that it is closer to making this quest a reality. RoGO Communications, which focuses on developing safety technology for firefighters and first responders, was recently awarded a NASA Small Business Innovation Research contract to develop its “DropBlock 2.0.”
The tool, which is about as big as three smartphones stacked on top of each other, would enable all deployed personnel to see near-real-time GPS locations for all firefighters and fire assets, such as bulldozers, water tenders, fire engines, high-value structures, medical evacuation and rescue sites, and makeshift water resources, along with the fire’s current location.
DropBlock would also share hyper-local fire weather information, including wind speed, direction, temperature, humidity, and other sensor data. RoGO also plans to release a mobile phone app in early 2026 that enables point-to-point communications among DropBlocks and crews, and plans to expand support to other first responders for hurricanes, earthquakes and floods.
DropBlocks went through Phase I, or discovery, portion of the NASA contract in the third quarter of 2024. The technology is now in Phase II, or the building phase, and will continue in that phase over the next two years, RoGO told Wildfire Today. Afterwards, it will go into the third and final phase to commercialize it within the new U.S. Wildland Fire Service. RoGO CEO Rod Goossen also told Wildfire Today he is speaking with partners in Canada, Australia, and other U.S. allied nations for the possible deployment of DropBlock there.
The International Association of Wildland Fire has committed to promoting health and wellbeing for wildland fire practitioners, their families and support communities.
The IAWF board has released a position paper Health & Wellbeing in the Wildland Fire Sector, which outlines actions the association will take to ensure everyone involved in the wildland fire sector is aware of mental health challenges and the available support.
The paper outlines the challenges fire practitioners often face, including remote work locations, long assignments, and extended work hours, which contribute to fatigue and high rates of stress, trauma, physical and mental injury.
According to the paper, research indicates that wildland fire practitioners are often repeated victims of direct physical, mental, psychosocial impacts, and injuries. Health and wellbeing can be improved through medical treatments as well as cultural, social, and environmental interventions, the paper says.
The paper defines health and wellbeing in the broadest terms to include cultural, social, social, ecological, physical, mental, and professional wellbeing. In the paper, the term wildland fire practitioners refers broadly to wildland fire managers, firefighters, dispatchers, aviators, land managers, scientists, agency, non-government personnel, volunteers, and contractors.
The paper, which was accepted and endorsed by the IAWF board, was written for the association by members of the diversity and inclusivity committee Phillipa McCormack, DaRon Shavers, and David Riera.
“In publishing this position paper, the IAWF has acknowledged the importance of mental health and wellbeing for the global wildland fire community,” McCormack says.
“Some health and wellbeing considerations for this [wildland fire] community are unique, but many are shared with other emergency and land management sectors, and their families and supporters. We hope that this position paper starts – and helps to maintain – critically important conversations about health and wellbeing across the sector and around the world.”
The IAWF officially launched the paper at the 18th International Wildland Fire Safety Summit and 7th Human Dimensions of Wildland Fire Conference in Calgary, Alberta, in October 2025.
IAWF president Trevor Howard notes that all roles within the wildland fire sector are demanding.
“As climate and fire regimes change, so too will the operational tempo and effects,” Howard said. “While individual, cultural and organizational approaches to wellbeing vary, fundamentally people matter. This paper is a call to action at every level.”
IMPACTS OF WILDLAND FIRE
The paper highlights key research findings about mental health among wildland fire practitioners and recommends actions (see pages 19 and 20) for improving health and wellbeing in the wildland fire sector, joining global efforts for urgent change.
Already, the IAWF advocates for positive health and wellbeing by supporting efforts to influence governments, employers, and policymakers to implement practices that align with increased health and wellbeing among wildland fire practitioners.
The position paper notes that there are many direct and indirect impacts of wildland fire fighting on aspects of health and wellbeing. During fire assignments fire practitioners may be repeatedly exposed to sleep deprivation, job stress, high outdoor temperatures, environmental hazards of rugged terrain, and extreme fire behavior. Impacts on wellbeing can include mental, emotional, cultural and psychosocial stress and injuries from fire, smoke, and heat.
The paper also points to research that indicates employment in wildland fire can limit the availability of alternative job prospects because of the operational tempo of deployments or chronic fire-related injuries. Stress from fire assignments may trigger relationship breakdowns linked to post-traumatic stress and substance abuse. Financial and economic consequences sometimes arise, such as lost work time resulting from injuries, and long-term expenses associated with gradual health impacts.
According to the paper, cultural impacts of working in the wildland fire sector can include systemic harm from culturally unsafe workplaces and environments – conditions that harm First Nations’ and culturally and linguistically diverse peoples’ cultural, spiritual, emotional and physical health. Research cited in the paper shows that wildland fires can have various effects on communities, including evacuations, loss of homes, property, significant sites, aspects of culture, social connections, and livelihoods, which impact health and wellbeing of residents and fire practitioners.
PATHWAYS FOR CHANGE
The paper indicates that health and wellbeing in the wildland fire sector can be improved through coordinated efforts at individual, workplace, and systemic levels, and provides examples of tools in each category.
• Pathways and actions to enhance health and wellbeing start with individual responsibility for health, fitness, readiness, recovery and resilience, action plans, and peer-to-peer mentoring.
• Workplace pathways can include cultural competency and cultural safety training, along with mandatory emotional intelligence programs for team leaders.
• Systemic actions may include researching and identifying pathways for reform to legislation, regulations and policy. People will only be able to use these tools and mechanisms if the financial, emotional and cultural barriers to accessing and using them are removed.
CONTRIBUTING FACTORS
The paper points out that research on wildland fire practitioners’ health is limited, particularly around long term risks such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. Limited research may be due to fire practitioners rarely seeking help, particularly for mental health, despite facing significant physical and psychological stress. According to the paper and previous research, organizational culture and fear of appearing weak contribute to reluctance, leading to issues such as substance abuse, burnout, and disproportionately higher suicide rates among people who work in the wildland fire sector.
The mental-health paper references previous IAWF position papers on climate change and prescribed fire, and notes that climate change is another important factor impacting wildland fire practitioners. Wildfires are becoming larger, more frequent and destructive, in large part due to climate change. Climate change is increasing the length and severity of fire seasons, which will require fire crews to be on call or deployed for longer periods during the fire season. According to the climate-change paper, these long deployments “reduce the time that wildland fire practitioners have to rest, recover and heal from long and intense fire campaigns.” Climate change worsens health risks, with wildfire smoke increasingly aggravating conditions like asthma and lung disease.
The IAWF Position Statement: Health and Wellbeing in the Wildland Fire Sector is a call to action for organizations that employ wildland fire practitioners to encourage them to take steps to increase health and wellbeing. The paper notes a need for these entities to “commit substantial resources and make a sustained effort to provide health-related education, training and other interventions to contribute enhanced wellbeing, greater resilience, and long term support for those experiencing injury and trauma.
“Existing efforts have not consistently and successfully mitigated the harm experienced by many people and communities in the wildland fire sector,” the paper says. “As climate changes and wildfire events expand in their scale, scope and duration, these are challenges that the IAWF have identified as critically important and worthy of greater commitment and effort.”
Fire practitioners and agencies often encounter financial, emotional and cultural barriers when working to improve health and wellbeing. Removing these obstacles and ensuring practical access to resources is essential for improving outcomes in the wildland fire sector.
The paper explains the IAWF’s vision, “to seek and promote and contribute to the mental, cultural, physical, and emotional safety of wildland fire practitioners worldwide; and to foster meaningful connections within and across wildland fire practitioner communities, to help build resilience and sustain health and wellbeing.”
The IAWF is committed to promoting opportunities for research, knowledge and experience sharing. To achieve this vision, the IAWF proposes four actions
IAWF ACTIONS
1. Understand the range of stressors affecting wildland fire practitioners, including the compounding and interacting direct and indirect effects of those stressors on health, wellbeing and ‘connectedness.
2. Foster safety, tolerance and diversity in all its forms, along with open communication about health and wellbeing for wildland fire practitioners across countries, cultures and contexts.
3. Promote a culture of active support for wildland fire practitioners to manage these stressors and build and maintain physical, emotional, cultural and other forms of health and wellbeing.
4. Develop and communicate holistic and nuanced messages about health and wellbeing for wildland fire practitioners; including to policymakers, fire agencies, fire practitioners, and non-government organizations associated with wildland fire, including those in support, communication and service provision roles.
In addition, the IAWF has committed to five key actions the association and its members can implement immediately to increase the awareness of health and wellbeing, including building partnerships, advocating for better practices, and creating safe spaces for conversations and mentoring at IAWF events.
Enhancing the health and wellbeing of wildland fire practitioners will contribute to sustaining a resilient and highly qualified workforce and will benefit communities and cultures.
IAWF Commitments
1. Advocate for better understanding and responses to the full range of stressors influencing health and wellbeing;
2. Create and cultivate safe spaces for conversation, empowerment, connection and mentoring at IAWF-supported events and in IAWF programs;
3. Partner with agencies and other organizations to promote the importance of health and wellbeing;
4. Advocate for improvements in policies, practices, workplace cultures and norms that negatively affect health and wellbeing of the wildland fire community, across the world;
5. Investigate new partnerships to facilitate access to new resources, guidance and support for members of the wildland fire sector and their families, communities and environments.
Rich McCrea is an Associate Editor of Wildfire magazine. During his career, McCrea worked 32 years in fire management and forestry with several federal agencies. Outfitted with a degree in forestry, McCrea started his career as a seasonal employee with the US Forest Service as a forestry technician and member of the Helena Interagency Hotshot Crew, then moved on to permanent positions with the US Department of Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, as a forester and fire management officer at three different field locations, and at the National Interagency Fire Center.
Two 2023 fireground incidents – one involving an entrapped crew in a high-risk planned ignition, the other a firefighter death in a vehicle – has triggered the British Columbia worker safety agency to levy a record-high fine against the province’s government, the second such fine in the same number of years.
WorkSafeBC began considering the most recent fine in May of this year after a planned ignition in 2023 trapped a team of five Brazilian firefighters and forced other crews involved in the burn to navigate off-road when their escape route was compromised, according to the agency’s penalty summary. The agency blamed a lack of planning, training, and communication for the incident, along with supervisors not following the employer’s safety program and operations manual.
A separate 2023 incident was also added to the penalty, where a firefighter died and another was injured when their UTV went over a steep embankment. The agency said neither worker was wearing a helmet, the passenger wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, and the passenger-side retention netting had previously been damaged. Inadequate supervision, a lack of safe work procedures, and a lack of pre-use inspection of the UTV were all contributing factors.
The combined fine was imposed is $759,368.84 (CAD). The fine is the largest that the agency has ever levied, second only to the $710,488.79 penalty it also issued against the BC government in 2023 for unsafe wildfire mitigation work. That fine was ultimately cancelled in 2024.
“Administrative penalties are fines imposed on employers for health and safety violations of the Workers Compensation Act, the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, and/or orders of WorkSafeBC, and for failure to take sufficient precautions to prevent workplace injuries or illnesses,” the agency said on its website. “Penalties are published as a deterrent and to highlight the importance of making workplaces safe.”
The record-high fine caused the B.C. General Employees’ Union, which represents over 2,000 wildland firefighters, to demand the province’s Wildfire Service address its alleged inadequate supervision, training and risk assessments to protect its wildland firefighters. The Union has previously pressed the Service to address high turnover and inconsistent safety practices.
“This decision confirms what our members have been saying for years, that systemic safety issues within the BC Wildfire Service are putting workers at risk,” said Union President Paul Finch in a press release on Friday. “We welcome WorkSafeBC’s direction to bring the employer into compliance with basic health and safety obligations. Every worker deserves to come home safe at the end of the day.”
The 2023 wildfire season was the most destructive in B.C.’s history, with over 7 million acres burned, hundreds of homes destroyed, and tens of thousands of people forced to evacuate. The fires stressed local economies, infrastructure, and local ecology, but also had an unquantifiable impact on the province’s firefighting force, partly caused by the deaths of six wildland firefighters.
Four of our 2025 annual IAWF Award winners are in Calgary this week (October 20-23, 2025) at #wildfiresummit25 to be recognised for their fine achievements in safety, training, support, learning and knowledge.
IAWF President Trevor Howard and IAWF Director Amy Christiansen presented the awards. (pictured left to right)
Nico Semsch is the recipient of the 2025 Early Career Award in Fire Operations – for an early career professional with outstanding abilities. Nico is an inspirational wildfire instructor in Germany.
Dr Stephen Pyne is the recipient of the 2025 Ember Award for Excellence in Wildland Fire Science. Stephen, the author of 31 books on wildfire is perhaps the most prominent chronicler of wildfire histories on many continents.
Juliane Baumann is the recipient of the 2025 Firebreak Award for Excellence in Fire Management. Juliane is working to reduce the wildfire risk in Germany with local communities.
Steve Lemon is the recipient of the 2025 Wildland Fire Safety Award. Steve has fostered safety programs in the British Columbia Fire Service that not only prevent injury but foster a broader culture of well-being.
A decade ago, the late Bill Gabbert began writing here about the “Holy Grail of Wildland Fire Safety” – the tools, best practices and system for advanced firefighter and fire tracking – and he returned to it often.
As their letter to the President observes, “Whereas we have a national commitment ensuring that our warfighters are not sent into harm’s way without the best of American science and technology at their disposal, no similar organizational framework exists to protect and empower wildland firefighters.”
Their five recommendations lead off with this problem and an urgent push:
“Recommendation 1: Given the vulnerabilities and shortfalls in wildland firefighter communications, connectivity, and technology interoperability, immediately assess, adapt, and field currently available technologies.”
To support this, their next recommendation calls for cabinet-directed executive authority to “Reverse the current trend of rapidly growing wildfire suppression costs by establishing a joint-agency executive office (hereafter Joint Office) that can accelerate enterprise-level development and deployment of new technologies that enhance situational awareness and initial attack capabilities.”
The recommendation continues that “This Joint Office would serve to advance coordination, streamline authorities, and drive progress in enabling technology adoption across the numerous federal agencies with equities for wildland firefighting science and technology (S&T) within NIFC [National Interagency Fire Center]. It is imperative that the Joint Office leader have Cabinet-delegated decision-making authorities as well as the mandate and budget needed to develop and execute a unified technology roadmap.”
Recommendations 3, 4 and 5 would be led by the proposed Joint Office and serve to unify and expedite the “full operational sequence of wildland firefighting” with current and new technology, with inputs from NIFC, the land management agencies of DOI and USDA, and NOAA, NASA, and the Department of Defense.
While the goals are straightforward the implementation is complex, as indicated in this graphic from the report.
At the NIFC website, a search for the word “safety” produced 641 results. Hits for “technology” totaled 206, “intelligence” 121. “Location-based” yielded 24 results, though most were variations of “allocation.” The most concrete reference is to the 2023 Red Book, where there’s a reference to “Location Systems,” on page 42 of the BLM section:
“The LBS [Location-Based System] Program combines current Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies with BLM fire and aviation preparedness to provide a situational awareness tool by tracking equipment. LBS is incorporated into dispatch and other operating procedures to enhance situational awareness and accountability of WCF 600-class fire equipment. This program meets the intent of S.47 – John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, SEC. 1114. (d) 12 Location Systems for Wildland Firefighters.”
With wholehearted respect for the BLM’s LBS program and the efforts to date, the federal location systems in their entirety seem a far (and hard to track) distance from meeting the intent of the 2019 Dingell act.
This week’s PCAST recommendations seeks to correct the “vulnerabilities and pitfalls” of our current processes and accelerate the urgency toward this decade-long search for the “Holy Grail” of location systems. It’s a race we need to win.
