Leslie Anderson, Fire and Aviation Program Leader;
Lisa Outka-Perkins, Project Leader
The DVD "Firefighter Cohesion and Entrapment Avoidance" will help wildland firefighters understand the importance of cohesion in avoiding entrapment. The Missoula Technology and Development Center (MTDC) based the DVD on interviews with 49 experienced leaders of firefighters. The DVD summarizes the work practices these leaders use to deal with cohesion problems.
The DVD has three parts:
- Part I: Cohesion Among Firefighters—Cohesion is
presented as a concept. Leaders describe what
cohesion means to them in their everyday
work.
- Part II: Links to Entrapment Avoidance—Leaders
describe how cohesion is linked to entrapment
avoidance.
- Part III: Eight Common Cohesion Problems on Fires—This part is divided into eight sections. Each section covers a common cohesion problem faced by leaders and the work practices they used to deal successfully with the problem.
Current leaders of firefighters or those who will become leaders are the primary audience for this DVD. Other firefighters can benefit from viewing the program because they too will have opportunities to help firefighters become cohesive.
Additional material has been included on the DVD to help facilitators and users. The materials also can be downloaded from the T&D Web site at http://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/programs/fire/cohesion/ or http://fsweb.mtdc.wo.fs.fed.us/programs/fire/cohesion for Forest Service employees.
The materials include:
- Firefighter Cohesion and Entrapment Avoidance: Facilitator's Notes
- Firefighter Cohesion and Entrapment Avoidance: Story Transcripts
- Firefighter Cohesion and Entrapment Avoidance: Discussion Questions
Leslie Anderson is the program leader for the Fire and Aviation Program at the Missoula Technology & Development Center (MTDC). Anderson has a bachelor's degree in forestry from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master's degree in forestry from the University of Montana. She began working in wildland fire in 1979. Anderson was a smokejumper from 1984 to 1989 in Missoula, MT. She worked for 2 years in fire management with the Costa Rican National Park Service as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1989 to 1991. Anderson worked as an assistant district fire management officer on the Bitterroot National Forest from 1992 to 1997 before coming to MTDC as an equipment specialist in 1997. She served as a project leader for projects involving fire shelters and fire-resistant clothing before becoming a program leader.
Lisa Outka-Perkins received her master's degree in sociology with an emphasis in criminology from the University of Montana in 2001. She works for MTDC as a sociologist. Her most recent projects have been the production of the Forest Service training video series "Personal Safety in Remote Work Locations" and the Forest Service training DVDs "Wilderness Rangers: Keeping it Wild," "Building Mountain Bike Trails: Sustainable Singletrack," "Collecting Fees in the Field: Mitigating Dangers," and "Working Along the United States-Mexico Border."
