Preface - Learning in the Wildland Fire Service

Complex systems are systems whose behavior is intrinsically difficult to model due to the dependencies, relationships, or interactions between their parts or between a given system and its environment. Systems that are ‘complex’ have distinct properties that arise from these relationships, such as nonlinearity, emergence, spontaneous order, adaptation, and feedback loops, among others. (Wikipedia)

Wildland fire is a phenomenon essential to nature’s design. Whether caused by natural force or human beings, fire can pose a threat to people and communities. The ultimate purpose of the wildland fire service is to protect life, property, and natural resources while engaging the forces of nature.

Most of us made a commitment to serve our communities, our states, or our nation. We willingly accepted this unique obligation to place ourselves at risk and to put the interests of others before our own.

We are asked to make tough decisions under a compressed time frame, given limited information, in a complex and high-risk environment. This operational environment routinely brings together people, machinery, and the powerful energy of wildfire in the close, three-dimensional space of the fireground and its associated airspace.

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