Story 1: They Felt Isolated

Here in Central Oregon; I was working for the BLM. This is a large range fire, 10…15 thousand acres, had been going for a number of days. We were getting structural firefighters from other parts of the State that weren't necessarily used to working here and doing wildland fire. So there were some structures.

We were working in a very large river canyon, and this is all, again, light fuels, mostly grass. So a very fast-moving dynamic fire. And I was sent out to a piece of line at the beginning of a day, at the beginning of the shift with a plan in place to tie in with some structural or rural firefighters who had been out there, and we were going to initiate a burnout operation for the day. And I was to use these resources out there. And when I got out there, these folks had been really out of the loop; they didn't have any commo with the incident command post. They had no idea what the plan was. They really were feeling quite vulnerable out where they were at, they couldn't see the main fire, there was a lot of things—they were just really frustrated. And when I showed up, here I am the only guy in federal green and yellows, and they immediately latched onto me and went, "What the heck's going on?"

They were structural folks intending to protect the few structures that were out there, that were at the top of the canyons. So the fire's in the bottom of the canyon, it's burning up toward these houses, but it's miles away at this point. But we're having to make a plan miles in advance because of the type of fuels. So when I showed up, they immediately came to me, and I could sense their frustration and almost anger directed toward me as, you know, what is going on? And right then I realized, these guys are either going to eat me alive, or I need to somehow connect with them and let them know what's going on and let them know there is a plan in place; we haven't forgot about them; they're in an okay place. And I, for the next 10…15 minutes, I just put out a map on the hood; explained to them what the plan was, where the fire was, what the communications were, how they were a key part of this plan and that we were counting on them, and I think that totally changed their perspective. And I really listened to what they had to say. I mean, they asked a hundred questions and I did my best to answer every question I could. They wanted me to even make radio calls and say to these other people that I told them that we're out there. It's just, they felt isolated, because they hadn't seen anybody, and so I made radio calls, I made telephone calls, I sketched things out, and it worked out great. It ended up being—over the next couple of days we worked together and established a great working relationship and ultimately it ended up well, but boy, there were a couple of moments there when I thought I was a goner!

I think bringing them into and including them as part of the group, and letting them know that they weren't alone, that they were needed, it increased—not only increased our productivity, I think increased their safety, increased their awareness, and made them feel part of the group.

Story 2: He Was Freelancing

I was a division supervisor. I had, I think, three or four crews assigned to me—mix of type II and type I crews. And I had three dozers assigned to me and three dozer bosses. So I staged them in the safety zone because I did not have a tactical assignment for them. One of them was an older gentleman. He, you know, asked questions when I briefed him so we had a dialogue instead of me just telling him stuff. The other gentleman was a younger guy—I came to find out later that it was his first large fire assignment so he was a little out of his element.

We did have a lookout posted who could see up the drainage. He called and he said he was concerned about the fire activity picking up. We did have a chunk of unsecure line. He was a solid guy; he called with a concern specifically about the position of a type II crew because he knew where all the people were also. And I said, pull the trigger, and let's get everybody headed toward the safety zone. So I called the type II crew and then I started checking all my resources because I didn't have strike team leaders at the time so I started calling them on the radio, one by one. "You copy. We're headed toward safety zone. Fire activity picking up."

Well, the dozer boss that I had staged had deployed himself tactically with a piece of equipment so that means, me as a division sup I had no idea where this guy was. He was the younger of the dozer bosses that showed up that morning. Put him in the safety zone, he takes a bulldozer and starts working his way up the line. He was freelancing big time, big problem. He had an assignment. He was staged. So when he told me he was not in the staging area, I yelled at him on the radio and I'm like, "What are you doing? You were not assigned tactically." I don't remember exactly what I said but I was pissed so I'm sure it was not a positive thing. As soon as I got done talking I was like, I shouldn't have done that on the radio. That's not where you correct people's behavior is on the radio. You don't correct people in front of everybody. Everybody hears the radio because you're on your tac frequency. Everybody in the division hears you and then they think that if they screw up I am going to chew them out on the radio too. Because I've seen other people do it and I've seen the effect it's had. And they don't trust you. They think that you are just going to correct them or yell at them instead of talk to them and treat them with regard.

So when we got to the safety zone, the fire blows up. We're taking pictures and watching it. I pulled all the single resources—and the supervisors of the resources together to tailgate, after action review about, you know, the pulling the trigger, the escape route, make sure we did everything and everybody understood. And the first thing I did was, while we were gathered up around the tailgate was, I turned to the dozer boss and said, "I am sorry I yelled at you on the radio. I just want you to understand that it's my job to know where you are at all times and I can't do it if I don't." So it was kind of a conditional apology. I apologized to him but I also told him what the expectation was. I actually talked to the older dozer boss. And, you know, they weren't off the same unit. I said, you know, just work with him. I don't think he has a lot of experience with equipment or on large fires. We didn't have any more problems. I just made sure he was with someone with more experience.