6 Minutes For Safety

04/26/2022

Interesting question! Give this short blog post a read and see what you think...

This post asks if acknowledging the hazardous nature of wildland fire jobs—and being transparent about the risk we’re asking our wildland firefighters to accept to accomplish objectives—could this acknowledgement actually reduce their accidents and injuries.

04/18/2022

NEW WFSTAR! 2021 Fire Year in Review:
Revisit significant events and statistics from 2021 to identify lessons we must learn to prepare for the future.

This video is also available as a download.  (Size 578MB)Download the .srt file for closed captioning (you may need to right click and Save As). For information on how to add closed captioning to a video, see this how to page.

04/18/2022

Starting on May 1st, the 6MFS Facebook will no longer be posting content and all relative information will be shared on the NWCG Facebook and Twitter pages. The topics can be viewed on the NWCG webpage --> https://www.nwcg.gov/committees/6-Minutes-for-safety.

The 6 Minutes for Safety Subcommittee (6MFS) provides national leadership and oversight of the 6MFS program. The Subcommittee is responsible for the development, maintenance, and distribution of the 6MFS platform, which delivers the daily topics, This Day in History, and the Wildland Firefighter W...

04/18/2022

For all wildland firefighters on National #

Today is National . Try writing your own wildland fire haiku!

04/12/2022

Thought provoking article by LLCs Travis Dotson: In the wildland fire service, we suffer from an “Illusion of Control”. This illusion is so pervasive it’s never even acknowledged, let alone discussed. The ever present assumption that complete control is possible puts us in a constant cognitive struggle to make sense of the frequent evidence to the contrary.

This article discusses the "Illusion of Control" in wildland fire: "We are not in control of the elements influencing fire, we are not in control of the other humans influencing our situation, and we are not even in control of our own perception of what the situation is."

04/08/2022

Caldor Fire Structure Protection, Fuel Treatment Effectiveness, and Operational Risk StoryMap (35 minutes to read) provides firsthand accounts from resources on the fireline--how fuel treatments allow for: "Fighting fire aggressively, while providing for safety first".

Caldor Fire Structure Protection and Fuel Treatment Effectiveness

04/05/2022

Looking for wildland fire discussion/learning topics for your crew or staff? “The View from Here”, a Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center (LLC) publication from 2018, provides 16 essays that share a common theme: How and why we in the wildland fire service must alter some of our most ingrained practices and perspectives.

04/04/2022

Recent analysis of fire shelter deployments confirms that design improvements implemented in 2006 provide an increased margin of safety for firefighters. Fire shelters manufactured prior to 2006 function as intended but may experience greater delamination when deployed. This bulletin provides technical information to support agency-specific decision-making regarding replacement of fire shelters manufactured prior to 2006.

View Equipment Advisory here:
https://www.nwcg.gov/sites/default/files/committee/docs/etc-ea-22-03.pdf

03/17/2022

We may be in for a doozy of a fire season...what are you doing to make sure you and your crew are ready?🔥

New Seasonal Drought Outlook by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s NOAA NWS Climate Prediction Center takes us into summer.

With a few exceptions, drought is expected to improve east of the Mississippi River and persist or develop west of the Mississippi.

This will be the third summer in a row with much of the West in drought. NOAA Climate.Gov NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) National Drought Mitigation Center

03/15/2022

Raising the Bar–Two Sawyers in Wisconsin Put Lessons to Work
Todd Pulvermacher and Andrew Gollnick are two “worker bees” who have taken the initiative to weave real-deal lessons into a class they teach. It’s a pretty simple process, but it makes a big difference for their students.

We like hearing about people out there using the lessons. Hopefully you are inspired by their actions.

This post, that appeared in the 2022 Winter Issue of Two More Chains, highlights how two wildland fire employees have taken the initiative to weave real-life incident lessons into their training program. Via this enlightening interview, they provide several helpful tips/examples of how they seek out...

03/02/2022

Winter edition of 2 More Chains...Let the Learning Begin!
In this issue we share key lessons from last year through personal accounts and unique perspectives—straight from the field. We also hear from two fire folks who have taken the initiative to weave these real-life incident lessons into their training program. We like hearing about people who use the lessons. We hope you are also inspired to do so.

02/24/2022

Opportunity – Create Opportunities for Firefighters to Teach and Learn...

Opportunity – Create Opportunities for Firefighters to Teach and Learn.

Following the 1994 South Canyon Fire tragedy, a major effort was set underway to improve how firefighters learned from our history. One of the proposed actions was to establish a national Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center, which became a reality in 2002.

Over time, this organization developed a number of innovative products that advanced every wildland firefighter’s ability to look at our past and to learn. One of those products is the “Rapid Lesson Sharing” initiative that allows firefighters in any location to become a teacher and share their close call or best practice for others all across the country to learn.

At the crew or work unit level, leaders should seek out existing opportunities for their team. This can be as simple as utilizing a prescribed fireline preparation assignment for a wildfire LCES drill. Or en route back home from a fire assignment, stopping by a historical tragedy fire location and doing a brief case study site visit.