In EMS the Golden rule is the first sixty minutes after a major trauma. The concept is basically that if the injured patient can be treated within the first sixty minutes of a traumatic injury the chances of survival are increased. This concept is a term coined from the Vietnam War. This term became a very heated topic for the fire service during the fire season of 2008 when Andrew Palmer, a first season firefighter for Olympic National Park was killed in tree felling operations on the Eagle Fire in the Shasta Trinity National Forest. This fatality incident is best known as the Dutch Creek Incident to those involved in fire suppression. This is where the Golden hour rule comes into play. Instead of the sixty minutes it should have took for Palmer to receive treatment for major traumatic injuries to his leg from a tree falling on him it took three hours and twenty minutes, subsequently leading to Andy’s death from a loss of blood. After Andrew death his brother, Robert Palmer, also a wildland firefighter, released a paper basically saying that we as firefighters should not engage completely until an EVAC, emergency evacuation can be complemented.
There are a lot of problems with this though. If you have ever had any experience with fighting wildfires you know as well as I do that this rule can’t always be implemented. We as firefighters battle blazes in all different types of terrain, at different times of day, and in very adverse and sometimes dangerous weather conditions. We can be a few yards off the road fighting a grass fire in a ditch or ten miles from the nearest road in high winds or low visibility and two hours from the nearest hospital at times. These conditions to me make the golden hour rule null, even if you have a ship, “helicopter”, capable for EVAC at that said hospital.
In the Dutch Creek Incident there was heavy smoke over the area making it impossible and even more dangerous to not only the firefighters on the ground but also the crew of the ship if it went down. Yes, we can cut a helispot if needed, yes we could have an EMT on the fire but this still doesn’t matter. When it comes to major injuries a lot of times you don’t even have an hour, you have minutes. If the femoral artery in the leg is severed you may only have minutes. Even still if you get the patient stabilized enough for transport can the transport get there, or do you have enough people to sufficiently do a carry out operation?
What I am basically getting at is that we can’t always take the “Golden Rule” into effect. We know the job we signed up to do, and we know that fighting fire is adherently dangerous. What it really comes down to is the fact we still have to do our job knowing that it could be our last roll. We have the right to refuse risk and nobody can knock us for that. We have SA, “Situational Awareness”, another term coined from the military. Regardless of these and other abatement actions accidents still happen and will always happen in this line of work. We can’t stop doing our job, to meet the “Golden Rule”.
Mr. Palmer’s death saddened all the members of the fire community, especially me since he was a fellow National Park Service ground pounder when it happened, but we can’t stop doing our job just because we can’t provide for this rule. We have an obligation to save lives, lively hood, and our nations beautiful places regardless of knowing this fire could be our last.
4 comments:
Very interesting stuff. I respect what you do. However I disagree to an extent about what you are trying to say. In Robert Palmer's paper he states that engaging in fire suppression firs one should look at the units ability to meet the golden hour should something happen. I think this is a great idea. In the end I know that each fire fighter accepts the risks that they are taking. However, I believe in the end, if we are not willing to make sure the golden hour is met that we are placing property and possessions in front of people’s lives. In the end, I think Robert Palmer's statement in the paper, "We aggressively engage too many fires. We need to ask the questions, “Why are we doing this? and Why are we here?” is right on. If we are putting lives are risk simply to save a few houses, is it really worth it?
Even if we adhere to our safety protocol such as (LCES) lookouts communications, escape routes and safety zones or even the 10 standard fire orders and 18 watchouts, not all resources are going to be available at night. Federal fire helicopters for example can't fly after dark. With this said, say there is a night fire 3 hours in on a two track which is inaccessable by ambulance. If there is an injury on this fire and the flight for life from the closest hospital is on a run what then? We can't just say no because of where the fire is and because we can't meet the golden hour. If we only followed the golden hour rule there would a larger amount of resources such as cities, infrastructure, and people being put in jeapordy just because we can't meet it and don't want to engage.
I have an understanding and deep respect for those out there doing dangerous jobs. Every day people die doing dangerous jobs. Yes wildland fire fighting is dangerous, and I understand there are many factors that go into the situation that happened where a life was lost. I feel for the family and the crew that lost this valuable life. In this line of work, and many others, injury and death are very real possibilities. The individuals choosing to perform these duties know all too well when they show up to the job. These tragic accidents keep "us" (many more then just wild land fire fighters)on our toes and humble. My main question is, what has been done since this accident to fix the system? Training? Communication? Additional Situational Awareness training?
-Korey
Honestly in the years since it happened I haven't heard much on the incident. Usually we are reminded during our mandatory training of Andy Palmer and to stay within your skill level. This incident could have been prevented if the overhead in charge of them would have checked their qualifications since they where operating out of thier capacity. In the end we can't point fingers at just one person since there where multiple factors leading up to and after the accident.
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