The Emergency Responder Safety Institute Releases Traffic Incident Management in the Wildland-Urban

With funding support from the United States Fire Administration, the Cumberland Valley Volunteer Firefighters Association’s Emergency Responder Safety Institute (ERSI) has released a new training package, Traffic Incident Management in the Wildland-Urban Interface, to help wildland firefighting organizations train their personnel in recommended traffic incident management and responder safety practices to make it safer for personnel to operate near moving vehicles at wildfires. The training package includes:

As buildings and infrastructure encroach further on undeveloped land, wildfire flames and smoke increasingly impact traffic on roadways. In addition, movement of wildland firefighting vehicles both on and off road pose a struck-by hazard to wildland firefighters. In fact, several struck-by line-of-duty deaths have occurred at wildfire responses. Traditionally, traffic control and responder safety around moving vehicles have not been part of wildland firefighting training. This new training package aims to change that. Vehicle hazards persist at wildfires and responders must know how to protect themselves, control traffic, and manage emergency vehicle movements to minimize the chances that someone will be struck and killed or injured.

“We’ve made great strides over the last twenty years in developing and delivering traffic incident management training to structural firefighting departments, EMS, law enforcement, departments of transportation, and towing and recovery organizations,” said Joe Kroboth for the ERSI. “Our colleagues responding in the wildland-urban interface deserve the same training and protections structural firefighters receive. We identified a training gap in wildland firefighting and we believe the materials we developed to apply recommended TIM practices to the wildland context will begin to close this gap.”

The materials are available for free at WUItrafficsafety.com. Organizations are free to use them in the way they deem most appropriate to their organization, personnel, and context. The ERSI suggests that all wildland personnel take the online module and/or attend an in-person training that uses the PowerPoint presentations as part of their initial or ongoing training. During deployment, the Safety Short can be used to refresh major key practices personnel previously learned. In the field, the cue cards provide a checklist of how to execute the key practices they learned.

Incident commanders and supervisors will increase their own understanding of traffic incident management at wildfires by reading the report and taking the online module. The model SOPs and other resources will help leadership craft their organization’s SOPs and training incorporating traffic incident management and responder safety. Then, leaders can use the PowerPoint presentations and Safety Short with their personnel, as well as require personnel to complete the online module. Vehicles and go bags can be stocked with the cue cards for field use.

Go to WUItrafficsafety.com to download all the Traffic Incident Management in the Wildland-Urban Interface materials.

The Cumberland Valley Volunteer Firefighters Association/Emergency Responder Safety Institute conducted this project under contract 70FA2022P00000034, authorized by the United States Fire Administration.

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