The 1995 Wildland Firefighters Human Factors Workshop

Following the South Canyon fire in 1994, fire leaders gathered together for the Wildland Firefighters Human Factors Workshop. The workshop theme was "Improving Wildland Firefighter Performance Under Stressful, Risky Conditions: Toward Better Decisions on the Fireline and More Resilient Organizations."

"The goal of the workshop was not to come up with quick solutions. Rather it was to explore the human issues of wildland firefighting and recommend to fire management corrective actions that would have lasting effects. As with all explorations of human behaviors, the complexity and variety of issues was apparent. But it became clear that a great deal of relevant knowledge already exists that other organizations have institutionalized to reduce risk and improve safety."

Over the course of five days, workshop attendees heard presentations from four well-known human factors speakers, including Kurt Braun, Gary Klien, Gary Hart, and Karl Weick, discussed human factors within the wildland fire service, and attended the Mann Gulch staff ride.

Workshop Background

It has become increasingly clear that wildland firefighters are experiencing collapses in decisionmaking and organizational structure when conditions on the fireline become life-threatening. Since 1990 wildland fire agencies have lost 23 people who might have survived had they simply dropped their tools and equipment for greater speed escaping fires. We are averaging more than 30 entrapments each year now. And during the 1994 fire season, 34 people died, 14 on the South Canyon Fire alone. 

These facts tell us that firefighting organizations, crews, and individuals need to be much more proficient at decisionmaking under stressful, risky conditions. Improving proficiency will require new training and attitude changes. And this in turn requires a thorough examination of the human dimensions of wildland firefighting. This examination is not limited to firefighting crews and teams (i.e., smokechasers, engines, helitack, incident management, type I, and type II) but extends to fire management officers, dispatchers, fire support, managers with fire and resource responsibilities, up to Agency heads. These people encompass a fire community. Fire community implies an awareness that we are interconnected and interdependent and should approach firefighting from the point of view that we are all in this together. 

To begin to address some of the human factors questions, experts in psychology, sociology, organizations, fire safety, and wildland firefighting attended a 5-day workshop in June 1995 to discuss ways of improving firefighter safety. 

Workshop participants explored firefighter psychology, interactions among firefighters and among fire crews, and better ways to organize. After several days of discussions, they developed a series of recommendations for beginning to implement changes that would improve the fire organization and firefighter safety. 

This paper outlines the workshop’s findings and recommendations. The workshop represents a first step in what will be a long journey toward a better understanding of the human side of wildland firefighting. 

Ted Putnam, Workshop Organizer

(Click here to read Part 1.)

Workshop Output

Workshop output was grouped into three main areas: 

• A broad vision of how to reorganize wildland firefighting based on insights from High Reliability Organizations (HROs). 
• A specific reorganization of Incident Management Teams and fire crews along crew resource management (CRM) lines.
• Better assessment and feedback for all wildland firefighting activities.

Over the last 20 years, many of the findings in the workshop were successfully implemented and brought about desired change in the wildland firefighting culture.

(Click here to read Part 2.)

(Joseph B. Sylvia’s marker cross on a steep Mann Gulch slope where 13 firefighters lost their lives on August 5, 1949. Credit: workshop report, part 3)

Final Thoughts from the Report

"The workshop findings and recommendations are not meant to be an end product but rather the beginning of a continuing assessment. It would be a mistake to think that a one-time effort to develop new training or a new organizational structure is enough. We hope to set in motion a process that will lead to a fire organization that reinvents itself as a high reliability organization where:

• The capacity to learn and adapt are valued and encouraged for the organization and the individual.
• The people are committed to the principles of CRM on the fireground.
• Safety and firefighters are number one.

(Click here to read Part 3.)

(Click here to read Part 4 - Appendix.)

Wildland Fire Leadership Challenge - Digging a Little Deeper

• Read Findings from the Wildland Firefighters Human Factors Workshop.
• Read books/articles from Karl Weick and Gary Klein. Suggestions include:
• Managing the Unexpected  by Karl E. Weick, and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe. Jossey-Bass. 2001
• "South Canyon Revisited: Lessons from High Reliability Organizations" by Karl E. Weick (found in Part 4)
• "Naturalistic Decision Making and Wildland Firefighting" Gary Klein (found in Part 4)