RT-130, Wildland Fire Safety Training Annual Refresher (WFSTAR)

Intent

Too often the risks associated with driving are normalized, just like other fire suppression operations such as felling snags or swinging a hand tool repeatedly, day after day. The common perception of driving as a routine activity can lead to underestimating the dangers and complacency among operators. Performing thorough preventative maintenance checks, maintaining situational awareness, and driving defensibly helps mitigate risks associated with driving. Recognizing when you are fatigued or distracted, and taking the appropriate precautions is crucial in preventing serious injury to you, your crewmembers, and others on the road. As wildland firefighters, we may be asked to operate equipment and vehicles we are unfamiliar with. It is imperative that we become familiar with the equipment prior to operating. By taking these precautions seriously, wildland firefighters can help protect themselves and their teams during critical operations.

Facilitator Preparation

• Review the video and module tools prior to presenting.
• Review your module’s SOPs for Travel Status and operating vehicles.
• Review your organization’s vehicle accident reporting forms and protocols.
• Print or display the module tools for students to reference during the activity and discussion.

Facilitating the Discussion

• Show the video.
• Facilitate a discussion.
  • How do you familiarize yourself with a vehicle you have been asked to operate?
  • How does your crew/module mitigate fatigue when traveling long distances to and from a fire assignment?
  • How does your module assign/share the driving workload during a fire assignment?
  • When you’re the driver, what are your expectations for the passengers?
  • How do you recognize when you are fatigued or distracted?
  • Do you feel comfortable communicating your concern to others in the vehicle, or do you power through?

Questions / Scenario / Directions

Scenario:

Your duty station is located on the Payette National Forest in Central Idaho, and your module has accepted a fire assignment in the Big Cypress National Reserve, Florida. You are the chief of party for a 10 person burn module who will be traveling in three trucks with crew cabs across the United States to your reporting location at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. You oversee the travel plan for your module.

How far will you travel each day based on policy and guidelines? What is your plan for sharing the workload of driving in your vehicle with two other crewmembers?

The time of year is early April, and you are driving a truck pulling a utility trailer containing firefighting equipment and hazmat. During your first day of travel, you encounter blizzard conditions in Utah and Wyoming, delaying your travel time, and you arrive at your first destination late. You establish a wake-up time to meet an appropriate work to rest ratio. The next morning, you wake up and check the local news station for a weather update. Snow has fallen overnight, and hazardous winter driving conditions exist.

How will you address this risk and communicate it to your peers?

You consider that your module consists of competent drivers, and your vehicles are four-wheel drive capable with all-season tires. You decide that it is safe to proceed with caution. Shortly into your travel on the interstate descending into the Cheyenne valley, you notice a vehicle has slid off the road ahead of you, and at that moment you encounter black ice on the roadway. Your vehicle immediately slides out of control and spins 180 degrees, sliding into the center median, causing the trailer to jackknife and strike the tailgate of your truck. Thankfully, you and your crewmembers are ok; however, the tailgate and trailer are moderately damaged. You look back up the interstate and notice several vehicles approaching, some of them sliding out of control.

What do you do?

After a quick inspection of the vehicle and trailer, you proceed cautiously down the interstate to an area where you can safely address the incident that has just occurred. You and your crewmembers were just involved in a potentially life-threatening incident.

How will you debrief/defuse the situation with the personnel involved?

Everyone deals with stressful situations differently. How will you support yourself, and each other? What would you do differently in this scenario? What is the accident reporting protocol for the organization/agency you work for?

Resources

• Website: Hub Locking and 4WD Operation
• Website: NWCG Risk Management Committee
• Website: Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center
• Publication: Hayden Fire Vehicle Incident 2023
• Publication: Pumpkin Fire Vehicle Rollover 2020
• Publication: Chase Truck Hits Power Pole 2017
• Publication: Drowsy Driving
• Publication: 6 Minutes for Safety: Driving Safety
• Publication: 6 Minutes for Safety: Fatigue & Stress
• Publication: 6 Minutes for Safety: Firefighter Stress Management

Additional Video Information

The video is also available as a download (zip file, size 1.65 GB) with .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 IE, right click and select Save Target As.