Definition
The Watch Out Situations are an official set of identified fireline situations created over 50 years ago in the United States to help improve fire fighter safety. They were created by the USDA Forest Service, and accepted by other wildland fire management agencies, as the foundation for identifying situations that have led to entrapments, injuries, or fatalities over the course of wildfire suppression history. They are meant to serve as cautionary warnings in the minds of fire fighters and others fighting wildland fires and to improve fireline situational awareness.
Introduction
Wildland fire management continues to increase in complexity with a growing number of influential elements and many of these are associated with constant uncertainty or with uncontrollable subtleties. Since inception of modern fire management in...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Braun C, Gage J, Booth C, Rowe AL (2001) Creating and evaluating alternatives to the 10 standard fire orders and 18 watch-out situations. Int J Cogn Ergon 5(1):23–35
Gleason P (1991a) LCES – a key to safety in the wildland fire environment. Fire Manag Notes 52(4):9
Gleason P (1991b) LCES and other thoughts. Leadership toolbox reference, Leaders we would like to meet. April 2003. NIFC. Boise. https://www.fireleadership.gov/toolbox/documents/lces_gleason.html
McArdle RE (1957) Standard fire fighting orders. Fire Control Notes 18(4):151
Morse GA, Monesmith JR (1987) Firefighter safety: a new national emphasis. Fire Manag Notes 48(4):3–5
NWCG (1980a) Fireline handbook. NWCG handbook 3. National Wildfire Coordinating Group, Washington, DC
NWCG (1980b) Preliminary report of task force on study of fatal/near-fatal wildland fire accidents. National Wildfire Coordinating Group. National Interagency Fire Center, Boise. 76 p
NWCG (2018) Incident response pocket guide. National Wildfire Coordinating Group PMS-461. National Interagency Fire Center, Boise. 122 p
NWCG (2019) Interagency standards for fire and fire aviation operations. National Wildfire Coordinating Group NFES 2724. National Interagency Fire Center, Boise. (published annually). https://www.nifc.gov/PUBLICATIONS/redbook/2018/RedBookAll.pdf
USDA Forest Service (1957) Report of fire task force: report of task force to recommend action to reduce the chances of men being killed by burning while fighting fire. USDA Forest Service, Washington, DC, 37 p. https://www.nifc.gov/safety/mann_gulch/long_term_impacts/documents/Report_of_Fire_Task_Force_1957.pdf
USDI-BLM (1981) Fire suppression field reference handbook, Alaska. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Washington, DC. 194 p
Ziegler J (2016) History of the ten standard fire orders (video). Wildfire today archives. https://wildfiretoday.com/tag/standard-firefighting-orders/
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Zimmerman, T. (2020). Watch Out Situations. In: Manzello, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_262-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_262-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51727-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51727-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering