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S A F E N E T
Wildland Fire Safety & Health Reporting Network
Report unsafe situations in all wildland fire operations. |
ID # 6RFQFASAFE |
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Name : (Optional) |
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Phone : (Optional) |
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EMail : (Optional) |
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Date Reported : |
07/06/2006 |
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Agency/Organization : |
FWS |
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State Agency : |
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Other Agency : |
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Event Date : |
07/03/2006 |
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Local Time : |
1600 |
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Incident Name : |
DOUBLE NICKEL |
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Incident Number : |
(PD)C6W4 |
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State : |
NV |
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Jurisdiction : |
BLM |
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Local Unit : |
NV-LVD |
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Incident Type : |
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Incident Activity : |
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Stage of Incident : |
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Wildland |
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Line |
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Initial Attack |
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Position Title : |
Incident Commander |
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Task : |
Transfer Of Command |
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Management Level : |
4 |
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Resources Involved : |
Ic's |
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Contributing Factors : |
Communications |
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Human Factors : |
Decision Making; Leadership; Situational Awareness |
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Other Factors : |
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| Describe in detail what happened including the concern or potential issue, the environment (weather, terrain, fire behavior, etc), and the resulting safety/health issue. |
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(The Stage)During the initial attack of the fire I was the ICT4. When I arrived to the fire it was 300 acres in steep terrain and limited access to the Virgin repeater. The fire was rapidly growing in size and was threatening the repeater. I had multiple air resources working the fire with low to moderate success of slowing the fire down. After 3hrs of working the fire I asked for a load of jumpers with an ICT3. Eight jumpers were in the process of jumping the fire.
(My Concerns) Before all the jumpers were on the ground and gathered their gear the JUMPER ICT3 had contacted dispatch and said "I’m the IC". At this time I am still working the fire and expecting to have a face to face with the ICT3 and do the transition from a type 4 to a 3 incident. 1/2 hour later contact is made with the ICT3 via radio, he wants me (ICT4) and all personnel on the fire to hike to him and have a "Chit Chat." It is a 1/2 hr hike to where he is located which is in the green and currently I’m working with my air support in coordinating retardant drops along with following up the drops with firefighters to catch the flaming front before it reaches the Virgin repeater. Eventually he hikes to a good point where we can make the transition. I tried to work with him on the transition and all he did was smile shake his head up and down and fiddle with his radio. Fire activity at this time was slowing down substantially from the work that my crew was doing. The only two questions he did ask were:
1. What resources did I have on the fire and coming to the fire?
2. When did it start?
After our extremely short briefing/transition my crews worked the fire for another hour and then were flown off the fire. I am part of a Helitack crew and it was agreed upon that we would be released for local I.A.
(My view) As soon as he hit the ground he jumped right in and overrode everyone and started to try managing the fire with only being on the ground for a couple minutes. The Jumper ICT3 wanted us (all personnel on the fire) to leave an active fire so we could, and I quote "chit chat." We dropped several loads of retardants throughout the afternoon and were starting to get the upper hand on the fire. 1/2 hour hike both ways to the jumpers plus the time to do a transition and brief it would have taken well over an hour of time with no one working the fire during the most active part of the day. When he was trying to manage the fire it was extremely ineffective because of his communication problems. He couldn't program his own radio, I had to show him. Air resources were confused with the changed strategies. The ICT3 just started directing them with out letting them know what his plans were. When we had our face to face, things he never asked that he should have addressed were what LCES I had established, hazards, locally threatened areas i.e. Virgin repeater, tactics and strategies, fire behavior, weather conditions, and communication plan. |
SUGGESTED CORRECTIVE ACTION |
| Reporting Individual : Please list anything that, if changed, would prevent this safety issue in the future. |
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I have transitioned fires to ICT3 before but this is my first experience of doing a transition of a fire to an ICT3 jumper. A professionalism and attention for following policies and procedures that I have been taught from NWCG guidelines seemed to be a minimal concern for him. With him on the fire he seemed to be a huge liability and not an asset. In hind sight I wish I never would have made the request. Because of weather conditions, air resources (excluding jumpers) and my crew, we ended up catching the fire during the drawn out time frame that it took the ICT3 jumper to get himself organized and in order to take over the incident. |
| Please document how you tried to resolve the problem and list anything that, if changed, would prevent this safety issue in the future. |
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During the time of our face to face briefing I took notice of his approach towards taking over this fire. He didn't ask for much information during our briefing. When I knew he wanted to work the fire I finished telling him the rest of the information that he didn't ask for that I felt he should know as he walked away from me. |
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