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A changing climate, changing development and land use patterns, and increasing pressures on ecosystem services raise global concerns over growing losses associated with wildland fires. New management paradigms acknowledge that fire is inevitable and…
Author(s): Matthew P. Thompson, Christopher J. Dunn, David E. Calkin
Year Published:

This paper is the preface to a special issue focused on US wildfire response. The nine papers included build from a 2016 conference special session on monitoring, modelling and accountability of fire management policies and practices. Here we…
Author(s): Christopher J. Dunn, David E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson
Year Published:

Wildland firefighters suppressing wildland fires or conducting prescribed fires work long shifts and are exposed to high levels of smoke with no respiratory protection. Inhalation of smoke is a safety concern for wildland firefighters and can…
Author(s): Kathleen M. Navarro, Stacey S. Frederick
Year Published:

Sharing fire engines and crews between fire suppression dispatch zones may help improve the utilisation of fire suppression resources. Using the Resource Ordering and Status System, the Predictive Services’ Fire Potential Outlooks and the Rocky…
Author(s): Yu Wei, Erin J. Belval, Matthew P. Thompson, David E. Calkin, Crystal S. Stonesifer
Year Published:

Within the Forest Service, we hold safety as the top priority. Fatality incidents are brutal reminders of what is at stake. To ensure we are performing at our best and in the safest way possible, it is necessary that all levels of the organization…
Year Published:

Modeling can play a critical role in assessing and mitigating risks posed by natural hazards. These modeling efforts generally aim to characterize the occurrence, intensity, and potential consequences of natural hazards. Uncertainties surrounding…
Author(s): Matthew P. Thompson, Jord J. Warmink
Year Published:

Wildland firefighters suppressing wildland fires or conducting prescribed fires work long shifts during which they are exposed to high levels of wood smoke with no respiratory protection. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are hazardous air…
Author(s): Kathleen M. Navarro, Ricardo Cisneros, Elizabeth M. Noth, John R. Balmes, Katharine Hammond
Year Published:

Wildfire risk assessment is increasingly being adopted to support federal wildfire management decisions in the United States. Existing decision support systems, specifically the Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS), provide a rich set of…
Author(s): Matthew P. Thompson, David E. Calkin, Joe H. Scott, Michael S. Hand
Year Published:

Currently, limited research on large-fire suppression effectiveness suggests fire managers may over-allocate resources relative to values to be protected. Coupled with observations that weather may be more important than resource abundance to…
Author(s): Hari Katuwal, Christopher J. Dunn, David E. Calkin
Year Published:

This report highlights how leadership has been proactively addressing safety issues, specifically, how the Safety Engagement sessions and Life First dialogues have already begun to address many of the systemic weaknesses that have been identified up…
Author(s): United States Department of Agriculture
Year Published:

Characterizing the impacts of wildland fire and fire suppression is critical information for fire management decision-making. Here, we focus on decisions related to the rare larger and longer-duration fire events, where the scope and scale of…
Author(s): Matthew P. Thompson, Francisco Rodriguez y Silva, David E. Calkin, Michael S. Hand
Year Published:

Ontario wildland firefighting is a hazardous and safety-critical operation with relatively high injury rates. This is indicated by the 10-year average of 4.46 lost-time injuries per 100 workers in Ontario wildland firefighting compared to 0.95-1.88…
Author(s): Zachary McGillis
Year Published:

Wildfire evacuation trigger points are prominent geographic features (e.g., ridge lines, rivers, and roads) utilized in timing evacuation warnings. When a fire crosses a feature, an evacuation warning is issued to the communities or firefighters in…
Author(s): Dapeng Li, Thomas J. Cova, Philip E. Dennison
Year Published:

Creating a safe workplace for wildland firefighters has long been at the centre of discussion for researchers and practitioners. The goal of wildland fire safety research has been to protect operational firefighters, yet its contributions often fall…
Author(s): Theodore Adams, Bret W. Butler, Sara Brown, Vita Wright, Anne E. Black
Year Published:

Wildland firefighting in the United States is a complex and costly enterprise. While there are strong seasonal signatures for fire occurrence in specific regions of the United States, spatiotemporal occurrence of wildfire activity can have high…
Author(s): Crystal S. Stonesifer, David E. Calkin, Michael S. Hand
Year Published:

The wildland fire environment is entering a new age of complexity in terms of not only the biophysical fire environment but also the social environment. More and more attention is being paid to the human side of fire and the role that leadership…
Author(s): Alexis L. Waldron, Mike Alarid
Year Published:

The impacts of wildfires have increased in recent decades because of historical forest and fire management, a rapidly changing climate, and an increasingly populated wildland urban interface. This increasingly complex fire environment highlights the…
Author(s): Christopher J. Dunn, Matthew P. Thompson, David E. Calkin
Year Published:

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify wildland firefighters’ (WLFFs) self-reported hydration and nutrition practices, they perceived may impact health and safety while on an active fire assignment in the United States.   Study Design…
Author(s): Samantha Worden, Callie N. Collins, Annie Roe, Katie Brown, Alistair M. S. Smith, Crystal A. Kolden, Andrew S. Nelson, Randy Brooks, Samantha Ramsay
Year Published:

Escape routes are essential components of wildland firefighter safety, providing pre-defined pathways to a safety zone. Among the many factors that affect travel rates along an escape route, landscape conditions such as slope, lowlying vegetation…
Author(s): Michael J. Campbell, Philip E. Dennison, Bret W. Butler
Year Published:

During active fire incidents, decisions regarding where and how to safely and effectively deploy resources to meet management objectives are often made under rapidly evolving conditions, with limited time to assess management strategies or for…
Author(s): Christopher D. O'Connor, David E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson
Year Published: