A division consisting of five handcrews had been assigned to a fire in a wilderness area. The firefighters on the division had to hike for two hours, through rough terrain, to get to the fire. There they began working on their assignment: construct indirect handline, fire it out, and hold it.
Midway through the first shift, the Division Supervisor called some of the crew leaders together for an AAR to get a handle on operations so far: What is going well? What is not? What do we need to do better?
Several leaders pointed out that no area had been cleared for a helispot even though they were authorized to use power tools and ATVs in this wilderness area. Without a helispot it would take at least two hours to transport anyone who was injured to the nearest road. From there it would take another 45 minutes to get someone to a trauma center.
Based on their discussion, the Division Supervisor persuaded the Incident Management Team (IMT) to authorize a helispot and directed some of the firefighters at the fire to clear an area for a helispot.
The following day, the adjacent division had a major slop-over while going direct on the fire. Three firefighters were overcome by the heat and smoke. One of them went into cardiac arrest. EMTs worked on him while he was brought to the helispot where a medevac helicopter was waiting. The chopper transported him to the hospital, and he survived.
[Click here to download a copy of Leading in the Wildland Fire Service.]
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