in 1991 Paul Gleason wrote a paper
titled LCEs and other thoughts drawing
from a long firefighting career that
started in 1964 and included working as
a hotshot supervisor and district and
regional FMO his paper introduced the
concept of lookouts communications
escape routes and safety zones as an
interconnected system it has since
become the cornerstone for wildland
firefighter safety and inspired another
generation of firefighters Brad Mayhew
is one of those firefighters and has
been analyzing LCEs and how we use it so
LCEs I love it Allstate yes right and
while in firefighting profession it's
just a ton of lists we got we got more
lists sometimes than we know what to do
with and actually they all have a use in
a place for us but if there's one list
that that we we count on that we trust
it's LCEs
why because those are those are the four
key safety measures for wetting and
trapping and burn over in in the wild
winning context right when Trust LCEs we
trust that if I have my LCEs covered if
I have my LCEs in place I'm going to be
able to even if this fire everything
goes to hell in a handbasket I'm going
to be able to get out of danger and get
to safety
at least I have my safety measures
covered
I know that for the experienced
firefighters that is already intuitive
ingrained it goes without saying but I'm
telling you for a lot of folks there's
times where we do LCEs without even
thinking about fire behavior
so if underline this as many times as
possible LCEs doesn't make any sense if
it's not based on fire behavior but more
than that
LCS has to be based on the fire
potential asking based on the worst case
fire potential in other words I need a
safety zone it's going to be adequate a
safe zone is going to do the job if the
fire does its worst this is a key
pitfall at LCS right is it's forgetting
about change right fire is dynamic fire
is constantly changing wind is
constantly changing the location of the
Sun is constantly changing my location
relative to the safety zone is
constantly changing we're in an
environment that is constantly changing
constantly dynamic it's a very common
pitfall news elcbs
and when it's not that I call it set it
and forget it center right where I said
I got I checked those things off if the
safety zone was there at 10 a.m. I
guarantee you that thing is still there
at 1600 hours right so the question is
'm is it there the question is is it
still adequate is it still going to be
enough based on conditions now and how
conditions might be changing is this
thing still going to work for me dynamic
fire behavior means dynamic safety
measures dynamic fire potential
I need dynamic LCEs
I think one of the very useful things
about approaching LCEs in this way based
on based on the intent of LCEs and based
on fire potential is it gives you a way
of defining the components of LCS in a
very useful way take lookouts for
example if you ask firefighters what's
the definition of a look at what does it
take to have a good lookout you're going
to get all kinds of answers do look
let's have to be on high spots low spots
see the whole fire see some how much
experience can they have collateral
duties there's all these factors right
and it becomes pretty tricky to try to
nail down exactly what it takes to have
a good lookout for this situation and
for every situation with this
approaching it gives you a way I think
it gives you a way of doing it because
what allows you to do is it allows you
to say look this approach to LCS what is
the fundamental intent of a lookout the
fundamental intent of a lookout is
someone who's going to see the early
warning signs recognize them and be able
to get the word to me and enough time
for me to get to safety what's the
intent of the C&L CTS and one piece of
that is is is when when it's time to
pull the trigger and get to the safety
zone I'm confident that there is a line
of communication from my lookout
directly to me that the words going to
get from him or her to me and enough
time for me to get to safety that's one
part of communication LC yes the other
piece of that too has to do with making
sure that I'm getting getting and
sharing key info about fire potential
about changing conditions so that so
that was I'm noticing these key
indicators I'm not just keeping them to
myself I'm making that in that
information available to the folks
around me so that they're using that to
update their si and they're recognizing
that changes as well
how many of us do this right where we go
do I have a way out of here and you look
at that little deer trail and you go
yeah I got I got a I got a I got a I got
a route check right the real issue is if
this fire starts cooking if this thing
starts doing its worst is that escape
route going to be adequate for me and in
some situations a 30-second escape route
isn't going to be adequate right because
a fire can get to you faster than you
get away from it if I look at the fire
potential in my best judgment right now
look at my LCS in my best judgment I
make the judgment call the look based on
what this fire is capable of each
element of my LCS is adequate if this
fire does its worst I'm going to be able
to get myself in my people are
responsible for I'm going to be able to
get us to safety what that means is what
I can engage confidently I'm still going
to need to keep updating my SM so gonna
want to keep questioning look into
something's changing but you can have a
3-hour escape route uphill with all
kinds of gnarly stuff you can have a
three-day escape route as long as that
escape route is adequate based on the
worst-case fire behavior if it's
adequate it's adequate it's a judgment
call human beings are not going to make
perfect judgments right but but are
there's no substitute for our subjective
human judgment
what's the definition of a safety so how
big is in you could be where does it
need to be located I don't know how you
define that objectively the only way to
define a safety zone has to involve some
element of human judgement right it is a
judgement call to some degree so let's
define what that means the issue with
the safety zone has to be this based on
what this fire is capable am i confident
that this spot is going to be adequate
that we're gonna be all right in there
if this fire does what's actually
capable of doing today it's not
something that I do for OSHA it's not
something I do for the Chiefs it's not
something it's not something for the
guys in City Hall or the State Capitol
or even in Washington we don't do LCEs
for them right we do LCEs for us LCS is
for me to avoid me getting bored and the
other people that are with me it's for
us to avoid getting barked that's it
that's all I'm saying your facilitator
will now lead you in a tactical decision
game