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 Technology & Development Center |
Two Entrapment Avoidance Projects: Studying Crew Cohesion as a Social Human Factor
The entrapment avoidance project (figure 1) at MTDC began in 1999. The center was asked to produce a 30-minute entrapment avoidance training video to accompany a fire shelter training video. The original idea was that both videos would be used as supplementary materials in basic and refresher fire training.
Figure 1—Helping wildland
firefighters reduce the risk that
they might be entrapped by the fire they are fighting is the
goal of the entrapment avoidance projects at the USDA
Forest Service’s Missoula Technology and Development Center.
(Photo used with permission of wildlandfirefighter.com, photograph by Morton
Salt)
Between 1999 and 2003, 24 experienced wildland firefighters and experts in the fire community were interviewed using grounded theory methodology (Glaser and Strauss 1967). A single question was the focus of all interviews: “How can firefighters avoid entrapment?” To our amazement, we found that this general question opened up the entire world of firefighting. Practically all the thoughts and actions of firefighters, especially those with the most experience, were predicated on avoiding entrapment. The interviews covered an amazing variety of topics, problems, and solutions. Our data showed there were no simple solutions to entrapment avoidance. At this point, Leslie expressed our collective exasperation when she said, “This thing is like trying to get our arms around a big pile of spaghetti.” We came to the conclusion that the original project idea—to produce one short video on entrapment avoidance—was simply too ambitious. Based on our data, we knew that separate in-depth studies were needed on the most critical issues brought forth in the 24 interviews.
To complete our initial development work, we wrote a summary report (Driessen and others 2002). The report identified the seven key problems associated with entrapments, based on our interviews. These problems were:
After reading the project record, the Forest Service Washington Office’s branch chief for equipment and chemicals requested a proposal identifying specific projects on entrapment avoidance. In January 2003, the center submitted a proposal recommending five specific projects:
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