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.