Between 1999 and 2003, a project team from the Missoula Technology and Development Center (MTDC) interviewed 24 experienced wildland firefighters and experts in the fire community using qualitative methodology (Glaser and Strauss 1967). A single question was the focus of all interviews: "How can firefighters avoid entrapment?" The interviews covered an amazing variety of topics, problems, and solutions. Based on the data, firefighter cohesion (how closely firefighters are tied together as a group, Driessen 2002) was identified as one important factor that can help reduce the chances of firefighters getting entrapped. Based on this observation, the MTDC project team began a new project in 2004 that focused on firefighter cohesion and entrapment avoidance. The "Firefighter Cohesion and Entrapment Avoidance" DVD you are about to view is the product of that project.

From 2004 to 2006, the firefighter cohesion project interviewed 49 experienced leaders of firefighters throughout the country. The leaders were each asked to share stories about times on a fire when they faced a cohesion problem and how they dealt with it to reduce the chance of entrapment. Their stories help preserve the oral tradition (sharing of wisdom) of experienced firefighters, bringing the abstract concept of "cohesion" and its connection to entrapment avoidance into the everyday work practices of firefighters.