Intent

Review the sequence of events that led to tragedy on the Yarnell Hill Fire and discuss significant lessons learned.

Facilitator Preparation

• Review the two videos and module tools.
• Consider additional activities and discussion questions pertinent to the location and agency.

Facilitating the Discussion

• Show one or both videos.
• Facilitate a small or large group discussion using the activity and discussion questions below.
• Guide discussion based on the Risk Management Process in the Incident Response Pocket Guide (IRPG), PMS 461. Provide copies of the IRPG for students to utilize and answer questions.

Discussion Questions

Part 1

Identify Hazards (Situation Awareness)

1. When did the involved personnel obtain the basic critical information?
   1. Objectives, communication, who’s in charge, previous fire behavior, weather forecast, and local factors.
   2. Was the assignment scouted?

Assess Hazards

1. Were potential fire behavior hazards estimated?
2. Which tactical hazards or Watch Out Situations were present?
3. What other warnings or indicators were present prior to the entrapment?

Develop Controls and Make Risk Decisions

1. Where was the fireline anchor point?
2. Was there an established lookout?
3. What communication links were in place between the involved personnel and their fireline supervisor or adjoining forces?
4. What was the pre-identified escape route(s)?
5. What was the pre-identified safety zone(s)?
6. Was a Medical Plan in place?

Implement Controls

1. Were the necessary hazard controls in place for this situation? If not, what was lacking?
2. Were the strategies and tactics based on expected fire behavior? If not, why?
3. Did all involved resources have an opportunity for feedback during the decision-making process? If not, why?

Supervise and Evaluate

1. What individual or human factors existed that increased the potential for decision errors?
2. What organizational factors existed that increased the potential for decision errors?
3. As the fire and situation evolved, did the strategy, and tactics continue to work? Did the hazard controls evolve as the fire and situation evolved?

Part 2

• Consider the casual factors identified in Part 1; then summarize the significant lessons to be learned from this case study.

Resources

• Document: Yarnell Hill Fire Serious Accident Investigation Report
• Publication: Incident Response Pocket Guide (IRPG), PMS 461
• Website: Yarnell Hill – Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center

Additional Video Information

• These videos are also available in a download (zip file, size 320 MB) with .srt files for closed captioning (you may need to right click and Save As). For information on how to add closed captioning to a video, see this how to page. 
• Note: For Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, right click download and select Save Link As; for IE, right click and select Save Target As.