Our First Priority: Life and Safety

The first of our standing incident priorities is life. No objective is worth the lives of our people; and we put the safety of our people first, above all other mission objectives. However, in the complex and high-risk environment of wildland fire, we realize we cannot completely guard our people from all the inherent risks involved in our work.

When the mission takes our people into harm’s way, fire leaders redeem their people’s trust by looking out for their well being: doing our best to make decisions that appropriately balance risk and potential gain, being watchful for unfolding conditions that may jeopardize their safety, and being present to share the risks and hardships. The leader being first in and the last out is a classic way of demonstrating the ideal of taking care of our people.

[Click here to download a copy of Leading in the Wildland Fire Service.]