Wild land Fire Behavior


Wild land fire behavior has been taught to technician's in the U.S. Forest Service since the early 1950's, as one of the solutions to reduce tragic loss of life on wild fires. The 1949 U.S. Forest Service fire called Mann Gulch caused the agency to look at how they could better provide the on the ground fire fighters (technicians) with some type of immediate fire behavior prediction tool. The result of that effort was the tool called "Behave". It initially came out in booklet format, to be carried with the fire fighters and used on site, with date for weather, topograpy and fuels for the current time period. It has since gone thru an evolution seveal times in its format, so that now it is on PC's and even handheld cell phones. Yet the core of the prediction system has stayed the same, after being evealuated many times over the years.
The challenge that I have seen in my career in the U.S. Forest Service is that most first level fire fighers on an individual basis (we are talking about the fire fighter at the first level of supervision, commonly called a squad boss/Fire Fighter Type I) have only a basic understanding and even many individuals higher up the chain of command use it less, instead relying on a specialized position called "Fire Behavior Analyst" to provide the predictions.

I was lucky enough to have worked for an been mentored by several excellent fire fighters/fire managers in my career. My first was a man called Jerry Levitoff on the Lassen National Forest. He urged and encouraged his students to really 'own' their fire line handbooks and the portion called "Appendix B" which was the Behave fire prediction technical tables. In doing so we used the tools that had been given to us to predict fire behavior on scene and for the next hour or two. By active use of this tool, one became much more adapt at making tactical decisions on the fire line because we "knew what our fire was doing and what the predicted fire behavior would be".

Now many people down played the use of this system, being apologists and getting stuck in digital outputs, increasingly as we left the paper tables and began using digital computers. My second great mentor was a man called Tom Jones, who I worked under on the Winema National Forest. He was a qualified Fire Behavior Analyst and he was able to transfere that knowledge and the use of the Behave system to others, because he saw the importance of using it on a daily basis. The full circle calibration: taking on site inputs, putting them into the model and getting outputs, then checking the outputs with actual observed fire behavior. When one did this exercise and really calibrated the model with actual fire activity, the accuracy of the output became much better.

The amazing element about this Behave system is that it can be taught to first and second year fire fighters, before they move on up the supervisory ladder. Then as a person chooses their career track, they can appropriatly increase thier knowledge and abilities in forcasting wild land fire behavior. It is one of the primary 'Ten Standard Orders" for us in the U. S. Forest Service.

The Ten Standard Fire Orders

Fire Behavior
1. Keep informed on fire weather conditions and forecasts.
2. Know what your fire is doing at all times.
3. Base all actions on current and expected behavior of the fire.

Fireline Safety
4. Identify escape routes and safety zones and make them known.
5. Post lookouts when there is possible danger.
6. Be alert. Keep calm. Think clearly. Act decisively.

Organizational Control
7. Maintain prompt communications with your forces, your supervisor and adjoining forces.
8. Give clear instructions and insure they are understood.
9. Maintain control of your forces at all times.

When all 9 are considered, then...
10. Fight fire agressively, having provided for safety first.

Below is a link to the National Wildfire Coordination Group (NWCG) page on the Ten Standard.



The Ten Standard Fire Orders

Here is a link to some very good reading on fire behavior.

http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/fmt/fmt_pdfs/fmt64-1.pdf


Fire behavior in the wild lands has not changed in the life of this author. Fire behavior often has been characterized by some observers as "an event they have never seen". This is because those folks have not engaged fire behavior except in a very local context. In addition they have probably not read alot of literature on it and this link will take you to some very good reading that is ageless!
Please read the "Fundamentals of Fire Behavior" by H.T. Gisborne. It is as true today as it was when he wrote it decades ago!
Understanding the environment and the laws of the state are required to make good decisions.


Here is the link to the California Public Resources Code 4291 which covers the fuel reduction requirements on private lands in California.
http://info.sen.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=prc&group=04001-05000&file=4291-4299

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