Today is a day to:
Remember the 19 and their Family and Friends
Learn
Move Forward Together
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For those unable to attend the memorial for these brave firefighter’s, C-SPAN offers the video here:
https://www.c-span.org/search/?searchtype=All&query=Granite+mountain+hotshots
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Hard to believe it’s been 8 years.
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Remember those 19
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This incident is why I am passionate about TAK.
I know they broke ROEs, we are human.
Perhaps technology can make for a better outcome or prevent us from making these decisions in the first place.
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I’d read awhile John Maclean, author of Fire On the Mountain, The Thirtymile Fire, etc, was working on a book about Yarnell. I recently looked up his site and there was a contact form so I inquired about the reported book and to my somewhat star-struck surprise John responded to me….
“Matt,
I’m asked this question regularly and I regularly struggle to reply. An eight year partnership with another person on the Yarnell Hill story broke up earlier this year, despite our having done a great amount of very good work. I’m trying now to find a way to get at least some of that into the hands of people like you. That’s about all I can say at this point, but I hope to have more to say later on: no guarantee, however. It’s disappointing to me, as you can guess. I appreciate your remarks and your interest.
John N.”
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My sentiments exactly. All the best to their loved ones on this difficult day.
When the truth hurts these are tough stories to tell. They made mistakes and broke age old ROEs. We dont have any new situations or fire orders because of this incident. Good people make mistakes. I make em, we all do. Some have harsher consequences then others. We owe it to GM and all the close calls and tragedies before them to train and learn from them.
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Hard lessons are given from the most miniscule of mistakes, things that we’ve done a thousand times and everything went just fine turn to chaos when the environment around us or even nearby us changes even slightly and we don’t notice until it’s to late. The best tools we have are our brains, eyes, ears, and the experience of others, many of whom we only get the lessons learned.
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Hard to believe that today marks a decade since 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots were burned over and killed on the Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona. Although we have rules of engagement that are intended to prevent tragedies like this, human factors are always at play. Where can technology help? Creating “shared consciousness” - Where am I? Where is the fire? Where are my adjoining forces? The concept of a “digital safety officer” watching over us is completely achievable. Does technology replace critical thinking? Of course not, but it can aid us in understanding what is occurring around us and might prevent a course of action leading to disaster. If disaster does strike, it is there to increase the effectiveness of the rescue response. This incident is why I am a such an evangelist for the Team Awareness Kit. When our brains and training fail us technology can perhaps give an already bad situation a fighting chance.
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While I agree with #5 of course - We owe it to ourselves to also be blunt about what really caused this. We owe it to them to talk about this. They left the black a completely safe area, walked through the green to go to what most thinks was the ranch all the while knowing the fire was heading in that direction. We dont know why, they are all dead but anyone who spent anytime in wildfire knows that was quite the gamble to take. Have I cut through the green? Hell we cut indirect line all the time. We have to ensure we have enough reflex time to get to our safety zone when conditions change, thats where the whole LCES comes into play. When I started in wildfire we had 13 situations in 1993, South Canyon happens in 1994 we then get 5 more. Yarnell happens we don’t add any. Let that one sink in. They broke existing rules of engagement. Part of why I am so passionate about TAK is what if the app can help you see whats going on? Latest IR flight, Cameras, even plan your route and go oh man that is way farther than it looks. Now we can fight fire safety without any of this tech but it is human factors that continue to fail us so what if technology might help guide us a bit. Im not saying we abandon training and just ask Alexa/Siri yada if its safe but at the minimum if all of our training fails us and we call for help we can at least know where you are and it just might give us a fighting chance for a safer outcome. I got a kid on an IHC now and this sort of thing runs through my head a lot. We talk about decisions like this. RIP boys your lesson will not be forgotten. We will continue to ensure your story is told.
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Have had the distinct honor on several occasions of meeting Joe Woyjeck, Kevin’s dad and (now retired) LACoFD captain. A great man who has been through so much.
Would encourage a visit to the LACoFD museum in Bellflower. Standing in front of their crew buggie left me speechless.
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