This section of the Lessons Learned Center is inspired by Paul Chamberlin, Northern Rockies Fire Operations Safety, US Fish & Wildlife Service
"Science fiction Portals are amazing. Pass through an undulating Portal, or Worm Hole, or even Dorothy’s tornado, and experience altered realities, new dimensions; see the universe from a new perspective.
Career firefighters usually pass through a ‘Portal’ of sorts, a Safety Awareness Portal, achieving new perspectives, their reality altered. Transiting the Portal can be painful, maybe physically, always emotionally. They are often related to traumatic events such as South Canyon, Mann Gulch, Thirty Mile, Cramer, or a less legendary incident; perhaps a near miss, or a personal Waterloo. It may have happened to us, or involve a co-worker, or we have strong empathy for a situation we read about. Some think there is no significant emotional growth without a link to traumatic experience.
Many have been through the Portal before us. Once through the Portal, you straighten up, blink your eyes, and finally comprehend how veterans you previously considered bland and worrisome embody a depth of humanity. They understand the severe implications of risk, and demonstrate an absolute commitment to safe practice. Entry level firefighters must be very careful when choosing which old salts to emulate.
Transiting the Portal is likened to a wake-up call, or the light turning on. All of a sudden we ‘get it’. Dorothy learns “There is no Place Like Home”. Firefighters see the forest as trees that will grow back, we see buildings as ‘things’ that will also ‘grow back’; we correctly see each human life as precious and irreplaceable, it can never grow back.
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How to Submit a Portal Story: How do I start writing a Portal Story?
Portal stories are a recounting of the lived events that have transformed or broadened a person’s perspective. Portal stories contain basic elements that everyone can relate to. To tell your story in its most usable form for others, you should include things that will help readers “paint a picture” of where you were and what you were experiencing. More...
Portal Experiences of Firefighters from Multiple Generations
"Before I begin, it is important to note that of the fifteen crewmembers, our views and reactions have differed on what happened that day, based on experiences and individuality.
With that, it was my second year fighting fire and like many rookies, I was eager to engage. Everything was unknown, new and exciting and if someone told me to dig line or asked for a volunteer I was always willing to do whatever was being asked."
"In 1976 I served as the fire behavior specialist on the fatality investigation review team on the Battlement Fire near Grand Junction, Colorado... This was the wildfire where retardant pilot Don Goodman of Missoula, Montana, died in a plane crash the day before the three Hotshots from the Mormon Lake crew were killed on a ridgetop. The fire swept up a steep chute from a burnout fire set far below by another crew from the Coconino National Forest in Arizona, overrunning four Mormon Lake crew members."
"My portal passage occurred early in my career. It happened my “Rookie” season of smokejumping at McCall, Idaho. That event taught me so many valuable lessons that guide me through my career as a firefighter and fire manager. I will share this event so others might benefit."
"On July 6th 1994, 14 federal wildland firefighters died on Storm King Mountain in Colorado.
I was a young ADFMO working on the Klamath Ranger District of the Winema National Forest in Klamath Falls, Oregon. I heard the news that 9 crewmembers of the Prineville IHC had been killed on the South Canyon fire early on the morning of July 7th..."
"A call came in reporting that fire had escaped into the woods from a local dump near Bristol. If we can get to a fire while it’s small, before it gets its legs under it, we have a better chance of keeping it under control. The significance of keeping small fires contained in our district was the high value of timber..."
"I was much younger in May of 1982, the year the Beaver Brook Lake Fire occurred. I was full of zest and had been taught to always respect my elders. Nearly all of my coworkers from the Dept. of Natural Resources were my elders and because of this and the fact that I was fairly new to the job, I wanted to impress them..."