Fire Thought For The Day 007
Fire Weather Index and Fire Behavior Prediction
Ask any successful athlete, businessperson, or any professional what it is that makes them successful and they will undoubtedly tell you, hard work, perseverance, knowledge of their field, and practice to be the best they can be at what it is they do. Never being just satisfied with something enough to get by. Always striving to be better at what they do.
We all know people that seem to always get that big Buck every year. Why is this? First they take pride in being the best they can be. They have the right tools. They don’t take a pellet gun to shoot a Deer. Just as a Firefighter would not have much success fighting a 10 000 kw fire with a 1 ½ inch hose line. They also try to learn as much about the habits of the Deer as possible. It is like this with everything. You get out of something what you put into it.
Another example; any law enforcement officer that is heading into a dangerous situation needs to know as much about the situation ahead of time as possible. This tells them what they are up against, what tools they need, how many people they need, what the danger level is to themselves and their people. After all, they know that enforcement work can be very dangerous, as we are all grimly aware since the loss of four young RCMP in Alberta.
The goal is to get the job done and have everyone come home.
Fire fighting is a very dangerous job too. Just recently, two firefighters were lost in Yellowknife. We can sit in judgment, as we as humans tend to do. We can say well should have, could have, would have, all we want. The fact still remains; these losses, in either case, can not be reversed.
We can say that this will never happen here on a wildland fire. Friends, we are kidding ourselves by saying this. It can happen, it has happened. We tell ourselves it won’t in order to lessen the fear and danger that hides inside us. There are others that say it won’t happen because they can’t be bothered putting forth the effort to be the best they can be. There are others that simply laugh at it as way of dealing with it. Others say why should I bother to put forth my best effort, no one cares, I won’t get paid anymore.
Well, you still go to fires. It is part of what you do. Whether you are there because you have to be or not. It still is a very dangerous job. You still need to take the time to do things right. It is your life and the lives of others around you that you are dealing with. I have heard things such as; “Our little fires…they are just a joke.” “Oh don’t listen to him…he is a crazy old fart…I have been doin this for years…and I’ve never seen any of the things he talks about.”
When a fire blows up unexpectedly it is no joke, when people get trapped it is no joke, when people get hurt it is no joke, when people die it is no joke. And I might well be a Crazy Old Fart, and you may well have never seen a blow up, and you may well have worked at this for years. Remember, it only takes once, and it can happen in a heartbeat, and there is no coming back, there is no changing something once it has happened.
New Brunswick has a weather data collection system that is second to none. The Fire Weather Index System (FWI) is complied and sent to the Regions each day at 13:00 hours. The FWI is complied using weather data collected from the many weather stations from around the province.
This information is sent out because it is important. It helps us make better plans. It lets us know more about what kind of situation we might be facing. Why? Because the more information we have going into a dangerous situation the better prepared we can be.
All of us are initial attack people. We all need to know what we might be facing on any given day. You know the saying, “The More You Know.”
Now then, the FWI is good if you know what the numbers mean. If you don’t and no one shows you, you likely will read it once and then say, Goobel-dy-gook, and never look at it again. This is where the fire behavior forecast comes in. It is based on the Fire Behavior Prediction System (FBP). It takes the FWI, which has numbers that are relative measures, and allows someone such as myself to make quantitative predictions of expected fire behavior. In other words, it puts things in terms that people can understand.
We have these things at our disposal. I wonder why some of us don’t take the time to look at them. I wonder why some people are not getting them at all. Are we waiting for a tragedy to occur before we take it serious? I wonder.
It seems we take the time to do things right in other dangerous situations. We seem to take the time to be the best we can be at something like sports or hunting, or enforcement work. Yet, we can’t seem to take the time to be the best we can be when it comes to wildland fire. And it being one of the most powerful forces in nature. It being one of the most dangerous work environments in the world. Go figure!
Perhaps we really are waiting for a tragedy. Perhaps we really have more in common with the events that led up to the Westray Mine Disaster than we choose to admit. God it is my prayer that this is not true, however, in my heart I know it likely is. I have a hard time accepting this and so should you. Why should someone have to get hurt or die in order for us to change the way we do business? Why can’t we learn from other mistakes in other places?
The fire season will soon be here. Please take the time to look at the FWI. Ask for a fire behavior forecast, especially on mid to high fire hazard days. Remember, it is your life and your people’s lives. We only get one chance. Take the time to do things right. Be the best you can be. Be prepared as best as you can be.
“Fire is not prejudice….it will try to burn anything.”
Until next time, above all else, Stay Safe! Tex
Fire Weather Index and Fire Behavior Prediction
Ask any successful athlete, businessperson, or any professional what it is that makes them successful and they will undoubtedly tell you, hard work, perseverance, knowledge of their field, and practice to be the best they can be at what it is they do. Never being just satisfied with something enough to get by. Always striving to be better at what they do.
We all know people that seem to always get that big Buck every year. Why is this? First they take pride in being the best they can be. They have the right tools. They don’t take a pellet gun to shoot a Deer. Just as a Firefighter would not have much success fighting a 10 000 kw fire with a 1 ½ inch hose line. They also try to learn as much about the habits of the Deer as possible. It is like this with everything. You get out of something what you put into it.
Another example; any law enforcement officer that is heading into a dangerous situation needs to know as much about the situation ahead of time as possible. This tells them what they are up against, what tools they need, how many people they need, what the danger level is to themselves and their people. After all, they know that enforcement work can be very dangerous, as we are all grimly aware since the loss of four young RCMP in Alberta.
The goal is to get the job done and have everyone come home.
Fire fighting is a very dangerous job too. Just recently, two firefighters were lost in Yellowknife. We can sit in judgment, as we as humans tend to do. We can say well should have, could have, would have, all we want. The fact still remains; these losses, in either case, can not be reversed.
We can say that this will never happen here on a wildland fire. Friends, we are kidding ourselves by saying this. It can happen, it has happened. We tell ourselves it won’t in order to lessen the fear and danger that hides inside us. There are others that say it won’t happen because they can’t be bothered putting forth the effort to be the best they can be. There are others that simply laugh at it as way of dealing with it. Others say why should I bother to put forth my best effort, no one cares, I won’t get paid anymore.
Well, you still go to fires. It is part of what you do. Whether you are there because you have to be or not. It still is a very dangerous job. You still need to take the time to do things right. It is your life and the lives of others around you that you are dealing with. I have heard things such as; “Our little fires…they are just a joke.” “Oh don’t listen to him…he is a crazy old fart…I have been doin this for years…and I’ve never seen any of the things he talks about.”
When a fire blows up unexpectedly it is no joke, when people get trapped it is no joke, when people get hurt it is no joke, when people die it is no joke. And I might well be a Crazy Old Fart, and you may well have never seen a blow up, and you may well have worked at this for years. Remember, it only takes once, and it can happen in a heartbeat, and there is no coming back, there is no changing something once it has happened.
New Brunswick has a weather data collection system that is second to none. The Fire Weather Index System (FWI) is complied and sent to the Regions each day at 13:00 hours. The FWI is complied using weather data collected from the many weather stations from around the province.
This information is sent out because it is important. It helps us make better plans. It lets us know more about what kind of situation we might be facing. Why? Because the more information we have going into a dangerous situation the better prepared we can be.
All of us are initial attack people. We all need to know what we might be facing on any given day. You know the saying, “The More You Know.”
Now then, the FWI is good if you know what the numbers mean. If you don’t and no one shows you, you likely will read it once and then say, Goobel-dy-gook, and never look at it again. This is where the fire behavior forecast comes in. It is based on the Fire Behavior Prediction System (FBP). It takes the FWI, which has numbers that are relative measures, and allows someone such as myself to make quantitative predictions of expected fire behavior. In other words, it puts things in terms that people can understand.
We have these things at our disposal. I wonder why some of us don’t take the time to look at them. I wonder why some people are not getting them at all. Are we waiting for a tragedy to occur before we take it serious? I wonder.
It seems we take the time to do things right in other dangerous situations. We seem to take the time to be the best we can be at something like sports or hunting, or enforcement work. Yet, we can’t seem to take the time to be the best we can be when it comes to wildland fire. And it being one of the most powerful forces in nature. It being one of the most dangerous work environments in the world. Go figure!
Perhaps we really are waiting for a tragedy. Perhaps we really have more in common with the events that led up to the Westray Mine Disaster than we choose to admit. God it is my prayer that this is not true, however, in my heart I know it likely is. I have a hard time accepting this and so should you. Why should someone have to get hurt or die in order for us to change the way we do business? Why can’t we learn from other mistakes in other places?
The fire season will soon be here. Please take the time to look at the FWI. Ask for a fire behavior forecast, especially on mid to high fire hazard days. Remember, it is your life and your people’s lives. We only get one chance. Take the time to do things right. Be the best you can be. Be prepared as best as you can be.
“Fire is not prejudice….it will try to burn anything.”
Until next time, above all else, Stay Safe! Tex
