6 thoughts on “Finally, Someone is Saying What We All are Thinking.

  1. You are absolutely correct.

    However, this is not just in the wildland fire service. This is an issue in every inherently dangerous job and management in all these areas should be doing just as you described. Unfortunately, we are going to always have new and burdensome rules put on us as they try to make these jobs zero fatality to please the insurance companies.

  2. No. I was in fire mgt for 18 yrs, from coast to coast and all in between. Any time there is injury, and especiall fatality, it was avoidable. When you begin to consider it unavoidable, it becomes inevitable. There is much more bs hubris and less careful diligence and judgement today, on the part of the individual. There is also more tyranny in the chain of command. Do not EVER accept the inevitabilty of fatalities every season.

  3. On June 30, 2013 19 wildland firefighters were killed in AZ. They were trying to get to some structures. There is much discussed about that tragedy. I have no firefighting knowledge. But nothing has more meaning than the lives of our first responders and fire victims. I dont know what the rules are. But never should property or tree saving be prioritized before human life. I will never forget our Prescott 19. Please dont make their horrible deaths in vain

  4. 30+ years service here and I like most have worn out a lot of my body parts and I accept that but what I never accepted was an order by a “superior’ that I knew was wrong or dangerous. I refused direct orders a few times with no consequences other than dirty looks and that is very easy to handle. Every time I read about a FF death I wonder what was being saved that was worth that cost. Not much is worth it.

    • There is a hazard here – As wild land fire managers refrain more and more from aggressive tactics in the name of firefighter safety, fires inevitably will grow larger and require resource commitment for longer periods of time. This will expose more personnel to risks not associated with aggressive tactics (i.e. vehicle accidents) over longer periods of time. Firefighter safety should not be used as a proxy argument for less aggressive tactics when resource objectives are the true, but publicly unpopular reason for such decisions (i.s. direct versus indirect attack).

  5. There is a hazard here – As wild land fire managers refrain more and more from aggressive tactics in the name of firefighter safety, fires inevitably will grow larger and require resource commitment for longer periods of time. This will expose more personnel to risks not associated with aggressive tactics (i.e. vehicle accidents) over longer periods of time. Firefighter safety should not be used as a proxy argument for less aggressive tactics when resource objectives are the true, but publicly unpopular reason for such decisions (i.s. direct versus indirect attack).

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.