A Catalyst for Change

(Redding IHC at South Canyon Staff Ride 2014; photo credit: Shane Olpin)

The 1994 fire season was a pivotal year in United States wildland fire operations. Thirty 38 wildland firefighters lost their lives in job-related activities. Fourteen of those deaths occurred on the South Canyon fire. This tragedy became a catalyst for change.

Learn more about the South Canyon fire from survivors themselves. This two-part video (Part 1 and Part 2) was produced by survivor Eric Hipke for the 20th anniversary. Join the Redding IHC and survivors in interviews and during the South Canyon Staff Ride.

Check out another interview of survivors in the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation's Wildland Firefighting: Everyone Goes Home series.

"Despite a great deal of attention to safety, the same unsolved problems and underlying factors were reoccurring and, unfortunately, adding to an already long legacy of tragedy fires. Following powerful soul-searching, multiple agency investigations, and special conferences on safety in response to the South Canyon Fire, a new idea arose. It became clear that the usual causal factors sought in fatality fire investigations were not achieving their objectives for change." (Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center)

Following this tragedy, members from all levels and aspects of the wildland fire service came together in May 1995 for a two-day National Firefighter Safety Workshop. 

Following the workshop, the five federal wildland firefighting agencies committed to digging deeper into the wildland firefighter safety problem. The agencies hired the TriData Corporation to delve into the service's safety problem in what resulted in a four-phase Wildland Fire Safety Awareness Study (also called the TriData Study). 

• Phase I − Identification of Existing Culture
• Phase II − Formulate the Desired Organizational Culture/Safety Environment
• Phase III − Develop an Implementation Plan
• Phase IV − Assisting, Monitoring and Evaluating Implementation. 

We will dig deeper into the study in future blogs. Be sure to check back!