Firefighter Safety
Conference website
This International Wildland Fire Safety Summit and Human Dimensions of Wildland Fire Conference brings together wildland fire management agencies, Indigenous knowledge holders and experts, scientists, trainers, and other collaborators from around the world. This event focuses on wildland fire management, science, and knowledge-sharing through the lens of safety, protection, human behavior or engagement.
Important Dates and Deadlines
May 15: Call for Workshops closes
May 31: Call for Presentations closes
May 31: Registration opens
July 1: Presenters notified
August: Program finalized
September 27: Room block expires
September 30: Deadline for exhibitors to register
October 20-23: SS/HD Conference
October 24 -25: Field Trip to Banff National Park
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Wildland fire is increasingly a consequence of the climate crisis, with growing impacts on communities and individuals. Wildland firefighters are critical to the successful management of wildland fire, yet very limited research has considered mental health in this population. Although a wealth of research in mental health risk and associated risk and protective factors exists for structural firefighters, unique demands of wildland firefighting such as the seasonal nature of work, the length and intensity of shifts, and the often geographically isolated working conditions, among other factors, require special consideration. The present review considers available literature on mental health in wildland firefighters, highlighting the importance of distinguishing occupation-related risks for firefighters from occupation-specific risks of wildland fire service work, and offers concrete evidence-based recommendations for future work in this high-priority research area.
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This paper uses qualitative data from a long-term ethnographic research project. Data include detailed fieldnotes, semi-structured interviews, and agency documents, which were systematically coded and thematically analyzed. In addition to the triggering effects of fatality incidents and agency initiatives to change organizational culture, external factors also directly impact the development of firefighter safety policies and practices. These include sociodemographic, material, political, and social-environmental factors. Identifying and understanding the influence of multi-scalar external factors on firefighter safety is essential to improving safety outcomes and reducing firefighters’ exposure to hazards.
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While inconvenient for your average hiker or boater, major shifts in the weather can be deadly for firefighters. Longer and more intense fire seasons make accurate and timely weather predictions crucial to firefighter safety. To answer this need, the Fire Weather Alert System (FWAS) was developed by Jason Forthofer, Research Mechanical Engineer, and Natalie Wagenbrenner, Research Meteorologist, both from the Rocky Mountain Research Station’s Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. The FWAS is a mobile app that gathers weather data from many sources into a single convenient space and provides firefighters with individualized, easy-to-use, and timely weather alerts on their phones.
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Compared with other models, the escape routes planned by the final improved model not only effectively avoid wildfires, but also provide relatively short travel time and reliable safety. This study ensures sufficient safety margins for firefighters escaping in wildfire environments. The escape route model described in this study offers a broader perspective on the study of escape route planning.
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Wildland firefighters are likely to experience heightened risks to safety, health, and overall well-being as changing climates increase the frequency and intensity of exposure to natural hazards. Working at the intersection of natural resource management and emergency response, wildland firefighters have multidimensional careers that often incorporate elements from disparate fields to accomplish the tasks of suppressing and preventing wildfires. Thus, they have distinctly different job duties than other firefighters (e.g., structural firefighters) and experience environmental health risks that are unique to their work. We conducted a systematic scoping review of scientific literature that addresses wildland firefighter environmental health. Our goal was to identify studies that specifically addressed wildland firefighters (as opposed to firefighters in a broader sense), geographic and demographic trends, sample sizes, patterns in analysis, and common categories of research.
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Federal agencies responsible for wildland fire management face increasing needs for personnel as fire seasons lengthen and fire size continues to grow, yet federal agencies have struggled to recruit and retain firefighting
personnel. While many have speculated that long seasons, challenging working conditions, and low wages contribute to recruitment and retention challenges, there has been no empirical investigation of these claims. We
assemble a unique dataset on the federally funded Interagency Hotshot Crews in the Western United States, which are comprised of highly qualified firefighters, from 2012 to 2018 to analyze the factors that affect firefighter retention. Using a Cox proportional hazard model, we find that a higher workload, a proxy for higher earnings, and cumulative experience over the course of an employee’s career both have a significant positive impact on retention. The wage of alternative occupations had no significant effect on retention. Retention decreases over the study period.
Webinar recording.
Topic: Firefighter Exposures and Efficacy of Interventions
Presenter: Paul White
Delve into the unique health exposures faced by firefighters and learn about the current state of research on the effectiveness of interventions to mitigate exposure. Paul White will share valuable insights into improving occupational safety and health outcomes for firefighters.
Webinar recording.
Topic: Resiliency and Residual in Mission Critical Roles
Join Preston Cline as he discusses the importance of protecting your mental health and building resilience when working in mission critical roles, especially during challenging situations like wildland fires.