RT-130, Wildland Fire Safety Training Annual Refresher (WFSTAR)
Lookouts
All aspects of acting as a lookout - from responsibilities to situational awareness, communication duties, fire behavior analyzing, noting weather changes, positioning and use of aircraft.
Category: Operations
Core Component(s): Incident Reviews and Lessons Learned;
Human Factors, Communication and Decision Making
Estimated Delivery Time: 30 minutes; Video Length: 7:55
Category: Operations
Core Component(s): Incident Reviews and Lessons Learned;
Human Factors, Communication and Decision Making
Estimated Delivery Time: 30 minutes; Video Length: 7:55
Intent
A lookout is one of the most important jobs on the fireline. Discuss the attributes of a good lookout.
Facilitator Preparation
- Review the video and module tools.
- Consider additional activities and discussion questions pertinent to the location and agency.
Facilitating the Discussion
- Show the video.
- Facilitate a small or large group discussion using the discussion questions.
- Use the Incident Response Pocket Guide (IRPG), PMS 461, to guide discussion. Provide copies for students to utilize.
Discussion Questions
- What are the desired qualities, capabilities, knowledge, and responsibilities of a lookout?
- What factors should be considered when selecting a lookout location?
- How many lookouts are needed?
- What items and equipment are necessary to serve as a lookout?
- What critical locations does a lookout always need to know?
- What does a lookout need to monitor?
- What are some of the communication duties of a lookout? What should be done if a lookout doesn’t know how to program a radio?
- Can aircraft serve as a lookout? Why or why not?
Resources
- Publication: Incident Response Pocket Guide (IRPG), PMS 461
- Document: “LCES and Other Thoughts” by Paul Gleason
- Document: 6 Minutes for Safety – Lookouts (LCES)
Additional Video Information
This video is also available as a download. (Size 2 GB)
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.
Note: For Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, right click the word download and select Save Link As; for Internet Explorer (IE), right click and select Save Target As.
Page Last Modified / Reviewed:
2022-02-11