BY MICHAEL S. TERWILLIGER
Over time, methodologies used to attack wild-fires have not really changed. Through trial and error, we have learned it is best to approach a wildfire from the heel of the fire, develop an anchor point, and flank the fire, making sure no fire is behind you. It works very well and has proven to be very safe. If this process is done on each flank as in a pincerlike attack, the fire is eventually pinched off and the spread stops. Unfortunately, wildfires don’t always start in places that allow us the option of developing a safe anchor point and following a flank. Sometimes fires start in locations we can’t predict, yet we must deal with them. One of the most dangerous of these wildfires is the one that calls for a downhill fire attack.
SCENARIO
It is a warm summer day, and you are assigned to an engine that handles, of all things, wildfires. The dispatch comes in as a vegetation fire on Smith Road. You know your area and realize Smith Road is mid-slope and is a very remote area. On arrival, you see smoke about 500 yards below Smith Road in grass and brush. Trees and the slope itself are blocking your view of the fire. There is no access to the heel of the fire, and it is obvious the only approach to the fire is a downhill attack. If you don’t take action, the fire will spread up the hill sooner or later, and the other side of Smith Road is full of homes. How are you going to handle this assignment effectively and safely?
 Photo by author. |
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TEN STANDARD FIRE ORDERS
There are some basic guidelines to follow when considering a downhill approach to a fire. Within them you will find many terms derived from the “Ten Standard Orders,” listed below. Let’s use them to help you decide if you can start a downhill fire attack on the Smith Road Fire.
1. Fight fire aggressively but provide for safety first. As you can imagine, this statement is a general safety message and applies to any fire. In fact, I firmly believe the Fire Orders apply to structural firefighting as well. I know this one certainly does. What I’d like you to focus on might come as a surprise: the word aggressive. First of all, I am a diehard believer in safety. We can’t legislate all the risk out of our occupation, but we can develop systems to minimize the risk. In most cases, aggressive firefighters are decisive, and you need to be decisive to operate successfully during a downhill fire attack. But, during a downhill fire attack, before you become aggressive, determine if your actions will be safe. Fires run uphill, many times surprisingly fast. Slope acts like wind on the flaming front, bending the flames closer to the fuel. This heats the fuel more quickly, allowing it to combust at a faster rate, resulting in an increase in the rate of spread (see photo 1).
Slope causes resistance to suppression efforts. You can’t operate as well on a steep slope. A relatively short escape route back up the hill may become useless if the fire spreads faster than you can run. Formulate an aggressive plan, and be decisive in its implementation, but check all the safety boxes first. Finally, if you determine it is unsafe to implement a downhill attack, if the chief officer arriving next is someone like me, you had better have an alternative in mind and be ready to go. Doing nothing is not an option.
2. Initiate all action based on current and expected fire behavior. You should begin this process when you get the alarm and start down the road. Based on the condition of the fire environment (fuels, weather, topography), you should be anticipating a certain type of fire on arrival. When you arrive, validate your expectations by observing the fire and seeing what it is actually doing. Is it burning as you expected, or is there some other contributing factor causing unexpected fire behavior? Are there chimneys or gullies that will funnel the fire? If the fire would allow you to approach from above, do a little real-time test. How long will it take you to reach the fire and have a measurable impact on its behavior? During the time it would take you to get to the fire, it might come into alignment with the slope and solar radiation and increase in intensity. The current fire may burn into a new fuel that is more conducive to carrying fire and increase in spread and intensity. Before you approach the fire, you need some good intelligence concerning the current makeup of the fire environment simply because you are getting ready to toss yourself in as the fourth component of that equation. Does the fire behavior and lay of the land afford you adequate escape routes and subsequent safety zones? In essence, don’t put together a plan that is not commensurate with the fire behavior you see and what you might expect to see in the immediate future.
3. Recognize current weather conditions and obtain forecasts. If the fuel is available for consumption, meaning its moisture content will allow it to carry fire, then weather is key. Focus on relative humidity, which will dictate how moist the dead fuels are. Is the fire on a west- or south-facing slope that experiences more solar heating? Is it hot, and could you expect the ground fuels to be closer to their ignition point? Is the wind at your back and favorable for this indirect approach? Will the wind shift at any given time, or is this a location where topographical influences cause unpredictable wind currents? If you are a fire department that responds to wildfires, you must have some ability to obtain forecasts for the daily fire weather, and you must be able to obtain forecasts for the future. If you are near federal fire agencies such as the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, listen to their daily frequencies; they read the weather twice a day. They can also get site-specific current weather with minimal information. If you work in an area that has wildfires, pay attention to weather trends. If nothing else, ask locals. They will tell you in their own way what will happen with the wind at any given time. I was on a fire last summer at Lake Tahoe. We were above the fire preparing to protect a community. It was late in the day, and the fire was settling down. We were preparing a plan for a downhill fire attack with one component missing: local wind knowledge. A long-time homeowner told us that the wind would blow cross slope at 1900 hours. We waited. It did, and the attack was successful.
4. Ensure instructions are given and understood. This is quite obvious, but once again the desire to get to work may cause you to pass over an important topic. I have been told that some fire departments don’t have first-in company officers become the incident commander because the department’s standard operating procedures dictate what will happen. I tend to disagree with that philosophy for so many reasons, and most are on memorials. During the Smith Road Fire, your instructions must reach each and every soul going over the edge. You want to make sure your personnel understand all instructions beyond just the desired tactics. Discuss the specific assignment to mitigate the problem, expected fire behavior and what would constitute a need to disengage, the anticipated weather, what communications will be used, escape routes for everyone, the safety zones the escape route will take them to, specific hazards that might be encountered, the tactics to be employed, who and where the lookouts are, incoming resources, and any questions that might come up. Do not forget feedback from your personnel to make sure they understand. Have them repeat the instructions if you feel they missed a point. Downhill firefighting is dangerous and is fraught with opportunities for problems. Make sure everyone is on the same page, and eliminate any chance for freelancing. I can hear it now: “Good grief, with all the talking, how do you get anything done?” The conversation I listed above takes one to two minutes if you are prepared. That statement about too much talking always makes me think of the old adage with a twist for this scenario, “If you think listening to all this talk is bad, try bandages.”
5. Obtain current information on fire status. Find out if the fire has been scouted or if you are the first one there. Make sure the information you receive is valid. You will need to know the size of the perimeter, the behavior of the fire, the types of fuel burning, if the fuels will change, how long it would be before the fire reaches your location, and the types of suppression tools that will be needed. If you are the first one there, take the time to scout the fire. Walk to it from a location that eliminates any threat, perhaps from the side. Do you have an air attack above the fire? Those personnel can describe it to you. In any case, do not develop a strategy and supporting tactics until you have scouted the fire. The potential of the fire based on your knowledge of the fire environment will dictate how intensely you will want to scout the fire.
6. Remain in communication with crew members, your supervisor, and adjoining forces. Before you start moving toward the fire, you will have to secure communication. You will need a command frequency that will communicate back to the incident command post (ICP) when a chief officer arrives. This command frequency will also need to reach your dispatch center until an ICP is established. Second, assign a tactical frequency over which personnel working on the incident will be able to communicate about the fire. Once you arrive at the fire, the crew members may be split up, and they will need to talk on that tactical channel as they work.
If air attack is used, consider establishing an air-to-ground frequency. In many cases, all air assets are going to be working on this designated frequency so they can have an exclusive channel. There is nothing worse than being down in a hole and watching aircraft orbit and not having the frequencies to talk to them so they can support you or give you detailed intelligence about your fire. Make sure all crew members have radios or are assigned to someone who does. Finally, do not put this communication plan together in a vacuum. Notify dispatch and incoming resources of the frequency allocation so that everyone arriving is on the same communication page. Do not start a downhill fire attack without having a complete communication system in place, ever. Also, solid communication creates a good foundation if the fire should escalate to an extended attack and the organizational structure grows. Make sure your briefing covers all aspects and expectations concerning communication.
7. Determine safety zones and escape routes. This should be on your mind at all fires, but it is critical during downhill fire attack. If your escape route is back up the way you came in, then make sure it is realistic. As the distance increases for an escape route, the longer it will take to get to the safety zone. Your escape route must take into consideration personnel fatigue, the current and predicted fire spread, and the ability of crew members to get to it to move to a safety zone. Safety zones are the destinations for personnel using the escape route. They must be close enough so that people can get to them in time. Once there, they must be large enough to protect from the fire as it passes. Generally adequate separation (personnel from fire) is four times the height of the fuel around it. This can be increased on the downhill side to account for the effect of slope on flame length. What this should be telling you is that radiant heat is your major enemy and that a safety zone must be adequate in size to preclude personnel from using shelters. If shelters are needed, the area is called a deployment zone, and that is an unacceptable escape route destination. In my opinion, we do not place enough emphasis on our designation of escape routes and safety zones. Oh, I hear the terms all the time on the radio, but I call that “feel-good chatter.” Remember, escape routes are dynamic; consider a smoky and obscured escape, and always remember how large the safety zone needs to be. I learned a little ditty when I was about 10 years old from the Forest Fire Fighting Fundamentals Book: “Check your exit well and often; you’re too young to fill a coffin.” It has stuck with me through 32 fire seasons.
8. Establish lookouts in potentially dangerous situations. I cannot conceive of a downhill fire attack that would preclude the use of a lookout. Why? In my mind, if the fire is burning, then there are available fuels. I know slope can cause fire to spread up a hill, escape is difficult on steep slopes, and suppression is needed because it is not going to go out on its own. Therefore, I am going to place a lookout every time. Place the person in a location where he can see the fire. What does a lookout do? Well, he yells, “Look out.” A lookout is a person who is in the communication loop and should be able to communicate on the designated command, tactical, and air-to-ground frequencies. A lookout should be an experienced person who can recognize the changing fire environment and notify those who are at risk before the problem occurs. It is not a job for the rookie. The lookout should have no other assignments that would take him away from the primary duty, except for weather observations, if needed. The IC can also be the lookout if the command post location is adequate for performing this task.
9. Retain control at all times. Do not allow freelancing on a downhill fire attack. You must have control of all the assets assigned to you. Personnel must be focused on the mission as outlined by you and agreed on. If there is a need to change tactics, it must go through you. If there is a need to disengage, it should be based off the triggers you all understand. If things go bad, everyone must stay together and use the designated escape routes. There will be a tendency to run across the contour of the slope if the fire heats up. If that is not a preferred escape route, then you have just lost control of personnel accountability. Finally, you must retain control of yourself so you may be very good at the next standard fire order.
10. Stay alert, keep calm, think clearly, and act decisively. You must stay focused on the mission at all times, as situations can change rapidly during downhill fire attack. You must act decisively if changes occur, stay within your plan and your contingencies, and be a decision maker. You must be an island of calm in a sea of confusion so your charges will follow you and look to you for direction.
MICHAEL S. TERWILLIGER is chief of the Truckee (CA) Fire District. He began his career in 1972 with the California Department of Forestry, where he served for 24 years in the following assignments: division chief of operations (South) in the Nevada-Yuba-Placer Ranger Unit and as operation section chief and planning section chief on a Type I team from 1988 to 1996. He is a certified fire behavior analyst. He is a member of the Sierra Front Wildfire Cooperators Team, which operates along the eastern California/Nevada border, and served as its incident commander for six years. He also instructs operations section chiefs, division group supervisors, and strike team leaders.
Well, there you are in Engine 1 still on Smith Road above that fire. You are given only one option on this fire, and it is a downhill fire attack. You are a good fire officer, and you use the Ten Standard Fire Orders all the time. Based on your new knowledge of downhill fire attack, some questions you will ask yourself might be as follows: Has the fire been scouted? Will the wind direction be in my favor, or will it change? Is the topography free of chutes? Can I create adequate escape routes and safety zones? Could I manually create an anchor point with firing tools? Where will I place a lookout? Do I have adequate communication for the task? What additional resources are coming, including air assets? Am I ready to brief my staff, and do I have the time?
Remember, as company officers or chief officers, we are really risk managers. We develop systems to help us manage risk every day. The downhill fire attack process we just went through is nothing more than a system to help you minimize the risk inherent in this job. Here is a final tip: If you have to answer “no” to any of the questions listed above, or if any of the Fire Orders are going to be in question, perhaps you should consider different tactics. Remember, always, always, fight this and all fires aggressively, but provide for safety first.
