National Fire Plan Success Story

Safety Specialist Trains Firefighters "Down Under"
Missoula, Montana
National Fire Plan - Firefighting
2008

Paul Chamberlin, a fire operations safety specialist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, presented two fire workshops in May at a session sponsored by the Australian County Fire Authority in Victoria.

Chamberlin, stationed in Missoula, Montana, is a nationally recognized authority in the field of fireline safety and provides fire safety training and presentations throughout the U.S. In addition, he frequently conducts safety reviews, provides input into major fireline safety strategies, and serves in an interagency capacity.

One of Chamberlin’s workshops was on "LCES," a wildland fire safety system widely used across the country since 1990. It stands for Lookouts, Communications, Escape Routes and Safety Zones and is based on mountaineering principles. Chamberlin also presented a training called "Hazard Trees - An Interactive Study," which teaches participants how to recognize common tree structural issues and to practice making decisions based on the level of risk. And, he took the participants through a session of "Sim Limb," during which a soft dummy tree limb is hoisted to the top of a flag pole and dropped unexpectedly on a trainee working below. The aim of the exercise is to teach firefighters to continue to look up for potential falling hazards.

This is the second time Chamberlin has been invited to train Australian fire personnel. In September, 2007 he and Paula Nasiatka, director of the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center at the National Advanced Fire and Resource Institute in Tucson, Arizona, were keynote speakers for a major Australian, New Zealand and Southeast Asian bushfire conference in Hobart, Tasmania. They also were presenters at a workshop in Melbourne, Victoria the following week.