Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center

This page houses documents which contain information relating to multiple wildland fire incidents, escaped prescribed fires, and/or general historical analyses which would not necessarily be linked to any single incident in the Reviews and Investigations database.

Surveillance of Mortality During the Texas Panhandle Wildfires (March 2006) In response to the disaster, regional and state public health preparedness staff at the Texas Department of State Health Services activated mortality surveillance and initiated an investigation to describe the ...
Author: Texas Dept.of State Health Services Published: 2006 Posted 2/6/2007

Learning From Our Mistakes, Lessons Gleaned from the 1994 Shelter Deployments in the Southwest Area and the South Canyon Fire. "An analysis of the investigation team reports for the three Southwest Area and one Colorado fire shelter deployment was conducted by A&FM Assistant Director Bill Russell. This analysis focuses on the information provided in these reports and is supplemented by some personal knowledge of areas and events." 1MB Author: USFS Southwest Region Published: 1994 Posted 1/10/2007

Similarities of Fatality Fires Following is a brief overview of the some of the key similarities of three fatality fires: South Canyon, Thirtymile, and Cramer. ... Each host fire Unit had experienced previous entrapment and/or fatality fires 74.1KB Author: Jim Payne Published: 2004 Posted 1/1/2004

Fire Shelter Deployment Review of 1988 700.2KB Author: Many Published: 1989 Posted 5/25/2004

TriData_phase1.pdf These can be used to receive and relay images to and from the ground through an airborne link to the incident commander and/or local FMO. 714.7KB Published: 1997 Posted 1/1/2004

TriData_phase2.pdf This report summarizes the results of Phase II of a four phase study to examine the Federal wildland firefighting community and to improve firefighter safety. ... The focus in Phase I was on systematically ... 368.6KB Posted 1/1/2004

TriData phase 3 links This document contains links to the separate chapters of the TriData Phase III study, assembled on one page for your convenience. Please click the corresponding link to access a particular section of the report. Author: LLC Published: 2007 Posted 2/7/2007

Prescribed Fire Escapes and Near Miss Lessons Learned (610KB pdf posted 10/31/2008)
"On many of the prescribed fire escapes examined during this Information Collection Team effort, frequent problems stemmed from a lack of adequate communication and coordination between members of the burn team—in both the planning and implementation phases. One person might write the burn plan, the agency administrator approves the plan, the plan is peer-reviewed by someone in a separate location, and, finally, a burn boss arrives the day of the burn—along with some or all of the other resources—to implement the plan." This is a Lessons Learned Center Information Collection Team analysis; with a series of key findings and sand table "prompts" using the principles of High Reliability Organizing.

Prescribed Fire Lessons Learned Initial Impressions Report."This analysis is the first known attempt to take a comprehensive look at escaped prescribed fire reviews and near misses. A total of 30 prescribed fire escape reviews and ‘near misses’ (see Appendix A and B) were analyzed to discover what, if any reoccurring lessons were being learned, or whether they were indicating emerging knowledge gaps or trends. It is estimated that Federal land management agencies complete between 4,000 and 5,000 prescribed fires annually." 320 KB Author: Deirdre Dether Published: 2005 Posted 10/27/2006

FWS Escaped Prescribed Fires Review Final Report Oct. 2006. "The review findings addressed key areas to be incorporated into the planning process for prescribed burns. This includes better contingency planning, increase suppression skills for firefighters participating in prescribed burns, trigger points for increasing beyond minimum staffing, and reduce the need for converting prescribed fires to wildfires due to fires burning in ground fuels." 346KB Author: FWS Published: 2006 Posted 1/10/2007

Wisconsin Wildland Incident Report 2004-2006 This is a compilation of wildland fire incidents which involved injuries (private or professional) from the state of Wisconsin for the years 2004-2006. Author: James Barnier, Wisconsin DNR Published: 2006 Posted 2/27/2007

102_US_Firefighter_Fatalities_2002.pdf These fatality statistics for 2002 are provisional and subject to change as the USFA contacts State Fire Marshals at the beginning of each year to verify the names of firefighters reported to have died on-duty ... 49.8KB Published: 2003 Posted 1/1/2004

Trends in wildland fire entrapment fatalities These include the U.S. Forest Service Region 5 Safety First initiative and FIRESCOPE project, Carl Wilson’s research paper titled Fatal and Near-Fatal Forest Fires – The Common Denominators, and finally the Report ... 216.2KB Author: Jim Cook Published: 2004 Posted 1/1/2004

Entrapment_Related_Fatalities_1976_2002.pdf During the study period, fatalities occurred during 28 incidents. ... A total of 105 fatalities were reported, about four per year. 573.8KB Published: 2002 Posted 1/1/2004

1976to1999_Entrapments_Part_1.pdf With an average of over 70 fire entrapments occurring each year, the factors affecting entrapments need to be identified and understood. ... The term entrapments includes not only entrapments, but also shelter ... 2150.6KB Published: 2003 Posted 1/1/2004

1976to1999_Entrapments_Part_2.pdf Since 1976, 1,692 firefighter entrapments have been reported during 240 incidents (Figure 2), an average of 70 entrapments a year. ... The Forest Service was the primary employer of persons entrapped during 54 incidents, ... 133.7KB Posted 1/1/2004

Fatalities_1990_1998sm.pdf Burnovers were responsible for 29% of all fatalities in the period analyzed, even though they represented just 16% of the events causing fatalities. ... Contractors working on wildland fire operations suffered ... 1346.4KB Published: 1999 Posted 1/1/2004

FEMA_USFA_Report1997_Fatalities.pdf However, wildland ground fatalities (as opposed to those occurring in aircraft) that are attributable to medical causes has previously been shown to have similar basic fatalities causes. ... Although the number of ... 49.4KB Published: 1997 Posted 1/1/2004

Historical Wildland Fire Fatalities 1910 - 1996 March 1997, 2nd edition This data is an attempt to document historical wildland fire fatalities from the many different wildland fire management agencies. ... This second edition includes 54 additional ... 616.3KB Author: NWCG Published: 1997 Posted 1/1/2004

1985 Fire Entrapment Incident Review "There were over 200 fire shelter deployments during the 1985 fire season warranting the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) to request a review of the fire entrapments. As a result, the enclosed review was presented to the NWCG at their July meeting." Author: NWCG Jerry Monesmith, Bill Lyon, Art Jukkala Published: 1986 Posted 2/14/2007

Preliminary Report of Joint Task Force on Study of Fatal/Near-Fatal Wildland Fire Accidents "During 1979 there were 15 fire-related deaths and a number of near misses experienced by Federal, State, and Canadian fire-fighting agencies. This is an increase in the trend over the last several years./ The National Wildfire Coordination Group (NWCG) established an ad hoc task force to analyze the problem, identify any common causes, and make recommendations to reduce the occurrence of this type of accident. This is the task force's report." Author: NWCG Joint Task Force Published: 1980 Posted 2/15/2007

NWCG Safety Gram 2006 The NWCG Safety & Health Working Team list of wildland firefighter serious accidents and fatalities for the year 2006. Author: NWCG Safety and Health Working Team Published: 2007 Posted 2/6/2007

NWCG Safety Gram 2005 The NWCG Safety & Health Working Team list of wildland firefighter serious accidents and fatalities for the year 2005. 60.6KB Author: NWCG Safety & Health Working Team Published: 2006 Posted 2/10/2006

NWCG Safety Gram 2004 The NWCG Safety & Health Working Team list of wildland firefighter serious accidents and fatalities for the year 2004. 106KB Author: Safety & Health Working Team Published: 2005 Posted 3/8/2005

NWCG Safety Gram 2003 The NWCG Safety & Health Working Team list of wildland firefighter serious accidents and fatalities for the year 2003. 117.5KB Published: 2003 Posted 1/1/2004

NWCG Safety Gram 2002 The NWCG Safety & Health Working Team list of wildland firefighter serious accidents and fatalities for the year 2002. 119.2KB Author: NWCG Safety & Health Working Team Published: 2003 Posted 1/1/2004

NWCG Safety Gram 2001 The NWCG Safety & Health Working Team list of wildland firefighter serious accidents and fatalities for the year 2001. 21.6KB Author: Stan Palmer Posted 1/1/2004

NWCG Safety Gram 2000 The NWCG Safety & Health Working Team list of wildland firefighter serious accidents and fatalities for the year 2000. 23.5KB Author: Stan Palmer Posted 1/1/2004

NWCG Safety Grams 1987 to 1996 This is a collection of NWCG Safety Grams from 1987 to 1996.
Author: NWCG Satety and Health Working Team Published: 1996 Posted 2/14/2007