Introduction

In 2006, United States Forest Service aviation managers created and began distributing a new aviation safety awareness poster. The poster features the admonition “if you see something, say something” and includes a cartoon illustration of a helicopter rotor blade contacting a tree. The poster’s inspiration was an actual incident in which firefighters observed a nearby helicopter’s main rotor blade strike an adjacent tree, yet they did not inform the pilot.

The pilot of the aforementioned helicopter did not realize until conducting a post-flight inspection that the blade strike had occurred and that the main rotor blade was severely damaged. Fortunately, in this case, the pilot was able to walk away without injury, and the aircraft was repaired and put back into service.

WFSTAR 2009 National Emphasis Item

Each year, one wildland fire safety issue is selected as a National Emphasis Item. The National Emphasis Item has usually been chosen from some aspect of wildland fire safety that presented itself during the previous fire season.

The 2008 Indians Fire Accident Prevention Analysis, provides an excellent lesson on how different perspectives of a fire can alter how firefighters perceive and respond to threats, and why firefighters sometimes fail to communicate critical information to others. After discussing the Indians Fire APA and other similar occurrences, the WFSTAR Working Group elected to adopt the aviation program’s “if you see something, say something” slogan as the WFSTAR website’s 2009 National Emphasis Item.

In 2008 the Department of Interior had 3 aircraft accidents involving Human Factors and inadequate communication. On August 27th, 2008 an AT-802 Single Engine Air Tanker (SEAT) crashed during fire suppression operations in Colorado, http://amd.nbc.gov/safety/library/IALL0901.pdf . Communication played a large role in this incident. Another aviation incident was a “near-miss” thanks in large part to the “If you see something, say something” theme for this year, http://amd.nbc.gov/safety/library/IALL_08-04.pdf

Firefighter communication responsibility

It is widely accepted that good communications are an integral part of wildland firefighting. The importance of communicating well is a central aspect of Fireline Leadership training, http://www.fireleadership.gov/ and is reflected in the Ten Standard Fire Orders, the Eighteen Watchouts, LCES and many other sources. Fire management organizations spend millions of dollars on radios, repeaters, sat phones, and other technological infrastructure to enhance our ability to communicate with other firefighters on the fireline.

Yet despite of our heavy emphasis on communications, every year we learn about incidents where wildland firefighters are injured or killed by an emerging threat or hazard that was observed by another firefighter (or multiple firefighters) who failed to communicate the observed threat/hazard to the person/people who most needed that information.

Why would a firefighter not let other firefighters know about an observed hazard or threat? How can this dynamic be changed to minimize future instances of firefighters failing to communicate observed threats/hazards? These are the questions that the “if you see something, say something” 2009 WFSTAR national emphasis item will attempt to address.

What should we be looking out for, and who should we tell when we see it?

On the face of it, “if you see something, say something” is a very vague instruction. What kind of “something” should firefighters be watching out for anyway? And to whom should you say “something” when you see “something?”

Given that the wildland fire environment is filled with hazards of many types, that wildland fire radio tactical frequencies are often heavily utilized, and that non-critical communications on fires need to be minimized, how does a firefighter determine when a given observation of a potential threat really needs to be communicated? And how do you determine who should be notified or how widely the information on the potential threat should be shared?

Size and potential scope of observed threats

Since there are uncountable natural and human-made hazards in the fire environment, and many variables in the size and scope of hazards, firefighters must individually decide when and where it is appropriate to “say something” and make the determination of who should be notified.

The size and scope of threats on wildland fires ranges from very small and local threats, such as a sharp handtool left where another firefighter could step on it, to a very large threat that may impact many people, like a rapid increase in the rate of spread on a section of a large fire.

In the case of the handtool, adequate notification might be a simple warning to a nearby firefighter like, “be careful you don’t step on that Pulaski.” For the fire example, adequate notification could be accomplished by a brief radio transmission to the Division Supervisor of the affected area stating “the fire is making a run toward the ridgeline just South of the break between divisions Delta and Echo.” In this case, the Division Supervisor would then be responsible for sharing that information with other firefighters in the immediate area.

Human Factors Barriers to Communicating Threats

Human factors frequently play a part in firefighter decisions to not communicate an observed threat. These are a few of the common human factors pitfalls to avoid.

Other firefighters are also seeing this threat/hazard so everyone must already be aware of it.

Guard against assuming that other firefighters are aware of the threat/hazard, so therefore there is no need to warn people about it. Other firefighters’ viewpoints may be obscured by smoke or terrain, they may be distracted by work tasks or other events, or they may have just failed to correctly identify what they are experiencing as a threat/hazard. Just asking whether a firefighter or firefighters are aware of a given hazard/threat may be all that is needed to sharpen their awareness and help them to avoid being harmed by the potential threat.

Other firefighters with more experience are observing the same thing I am but don’t appear concerned, so maybe my concerns are due to my lack of experience causing me to misinterpret what I am seeing as a threat/hazard.

If you observe a possible threat/hazard but are unsure whether your concerns are warranted, discuss your observations and concerns with an experienced firefighter whose judgment you trust. Remember, it is always better to point out a suspected threat/hazard to others than to remain silent out of fear of embarrassment. Embarrassment is rarely fatal.

I wouldn’t want to insult the intelligence of fellow firefighters by pointing out something that should be apparent to them already.

It is better to point out a hazard than take the risk that someone might be injured or killed because you were concerned that someone might feel insulted. Most firefighters appreciate knowing that others are looking out for their safety even if they were already aware of a threat you pointed out.

If the observed threat/hazard is to someone outside of my crew or my official area of responsibility, it isn’t any of my business.

Establishing and maintaining good situational awareness on wildland fires frequently means that we must rely on others to provide information about parts of the fire we cannot personally observe. When viewed from this perspective, operational boundaries or crew affiliations should make no difference when it comes to communicating observed threats.

How to use “if you see something, say something” in fire refresher training

There are many ways that fire refresher instructors can stimulate classroom discussions on the 2009 WFSTAR National Emphasis Item. The previously mentioned Indians Fire APA is an excellent tool for promoting “if you see something, say something.”