Intent

Identify the hazards associated with smoke impacts to roads that impact both the public and fire personnel. Examine procedures to decrease the impacts of smoke, and provide mitigation and response information to implement a Roadway Response Plan (RRP). Identify helpful tools that are available for predicting, accessing, and monitoring the risk.

Facilitator Preparation

• Review the video and module tools.
• Consider additional activities and discussion questions relevant to location and agency.
• Review and share the Roadway Response Plan located under Resources.

Facilitating the Discussion

• Show the video.
• Consider whether one large group discussion or multiple smaller group discussions will best engage the participants. 
• Facilitate the group discussion using the selected questions. Give the participants a chance to comment and reflect on each other’s answers.

Discussion Questions

Inform the participants:

This module focuses on the hazards associated with smoke on roads and will provide information on how to address the potential impacts. It will provide mitigation and response information and identify some helpful tools that are available to assess and monitor the risks associated with smoke on roads.

1. How often have you encountered smoke on the road when driving to and from prescribed fires or wildfires? Do you consider the potential hazards to other fire personnel and the public?
2. What are the five weather conditions that can worsen smoke impacts to roadways?
3. What is the purpose of a Roadway Response Plan (RRP)? Have you responded to smoke impacting a roadway?
4. Does your home unit utilize RRPs? Has your home unit had incidents of smoke impacting roadways? Has your unit pre-identified roadway areas that are susceptible to being impacted by smoke?
5. How can RRPs be used in wildland fire planning and response?
6. What are some of the tools shared in the video you can utilize at your home unit to predict the likelihood of smoke impacting roadways?

Resources

• Publication: Smoke and Roadway Safety Guide, PMS 477
• Publication: NWCG Smoke and Roadway Safety Pocket Card, PMS 477-1
• Publication: NWCG Standards for Prescribed Fire Planning and Implementation, PMS 484
• Publication: NWCG Smoke Management Guide for Prescribed Fire, PMS 420-2
• Publication: NWCG Incident Response Pocket Guide, PMS 461, specifically
  1. Smoke Hazards and Mitigation, and
  2. Smoke and Transportation Safety
• Document: Roadway Response Plan Process and Checklist
• Document: Use of General Weather and Dispersion Index to Minimize Smoke Impact on Highway Visibility

Video Information

• This video is also available as a download (zip file, size 885 MB) with .srt file 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 the word download and select Save Link As; for Internet Explorer (IE), right click and select Save Target As.