Project no. FP6-018505
Project Acronym FIRE PARADOX
Project Title FIRE PARADOX: An Innovative Approach of Integrated Wildland Fire Management Regulating the Wildfire Problem by the Wise Use of Fire: Solving the Fire Paradox
Instrument Integrated Project (IP)
Thematic Priority Sustainable development, global change and ecosystems
Deliverable D 7.1-3.7-43
Guidelines to mitigate personal risk in prescribed burning and suppression
Due date of deliverable: Month 43
Actual submission date: Month 46
Start date of project: 1st March 2006Duration: 48months
Organisation name of lead contractor for this deliverable P11-UL-UFF
Revision (1000)
Project co-funded by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework Programme (2002-2006)Dissemination Level
PU / Public
PP / Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services)
RE / Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services) / X
CO / Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services)
Authors:
Enric Pous Andrés (P11 UL-UFF)
Domingo Molina Terrén (P11 UL-UFF)
Montserrat Cabré (P11 UL-UFF)
Javier Blanco (P11 UL-UFF)
Reference:
POUS E, MOLINA DM, CABRÉ, MM, BLANCO J. 2009. Guidelines to mitigate personal risk in prescribed burning and suppression.D7.1-3-7, of the Integrated Project “Fire Paradox”. European Commission.86 p.
Executive summary
This report is a contribution to define the major measures in job hazard abatement actions that should be implemented when we use fire as either vegetation management or suppression tool.
Both prescribed fire and suppression fires are the updated versions of several traditional practices. This modern and technical use involves safety items for both fire workers and nearby residents.
If we accept that a major move towards solving the fire paradox is using fire wisely, we should work on best job hazard abatement actions. To do so, we will address in this study, two main constrains:
- the opposition and distrust from both the workers who have to apply these techniques (i.e., firefighters, land managers, policy makers), and residents and others stakeholders who may be affected by smoke or fire.
- the fact that European laws (and from other countries too) mandate proper work in safety issues
The first problem to be solved is the lacking of specific regulations regarding fire use (in many countries) in both forestry and labor ruling. Some people do consider this equal to formal exclusion of fire use. On the contrary, we propose to go beyond and apply the general ruling from EEC Directive 81/391. In doing so, we will promote the developing of specific regulations regarding fire use, like there are in other economic activities in both governmental and private sectors.
Another problem is to assess, in both qualitative and quantitative means, which are the major safety risks from the use of this techniques. To do so we have described and analyzed all tasks involved in the wise use of fire. And then, we have identified the elementary tasks (dissection process) and we have identified specific safety hazards to any of them. The main safety hazards are grouped as follows:
-Job environment
-Transport
-Manual handling of loads
-Hand tools and machinery
-Heavy machinery and aircrafts
-Ignition devices
-Planning and psycho sociological impact
-Hose lines
-Hygienic risks
A senseless risk: lighted cigarette and a fuel jerry can.
Later, we described the main job hazards abatement actions (for both prescribed burning and suppression fire use) that agencies and private institutions need to consider. And other related issues as:
-Preventive policy
-Job hazard assessment
-Emergency and imminent risk situations
-Accidents investigation
-Health surveillance
-Liabilities and insurances
-Integration of job hazard abatement actions management in the prescribed burning plans
-Considerations on the role in terms of job hazards abatement actions of different actors in a prescribed burn
The implementation of these safety measures, along with its technical development, will ensure the wise use fire as a useful tool that form part of an integrated wildland fire management.
Table of contents
I. Introduction and justification
1. Introduction
2. Justification of preventive planning and job hazard assessment
3. Regulation of Job Hazard Abatement Actions
4. Burnings and backfires operations hazards
4.1 State of job safety and health in the sub-sector of forestry and wildland fire management
4.2 State of occupational safety and health in the sector of wildfires suppression
4.3 Sick leaves
4.4 Early retirements
4.5 Sanitary care of injuries
II. Job Hazard Abatement actions in prescribed burning
1. Management of hazards related to the job environment
1.1 Topographic factors
1.2 Meteorological factors
1.3 Biological factors
2. Management of hazards related to the transport
3. Management of hazards related to the manual handling of loads
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Main hazards
3.3 Postural hygiene in the use of drip torch
4. Management of hazards related to the use of hand tools and machinery
4.1 Hand tools
4.2 Machinery
5. Management of hazards related to the use of the heavy machinery
6. Use of ignition devices and hazard management
6.1 Main Ignition devices
6.2 Main safety practices with ignition devices (adapted from Dombeck, 1999)
7. Managing risks associated with the planning of prescribed burns and their psycho-sociological impact
8. Management of hygienic risks
8.1 Fuel handling risks
8.2 Exposure to smoke risks
8.3 Risks associated to handling of retardants
III. Job Hazard Abatement actions in suppression fire
1. Management of hazards related to the job environment
1.1 Topographic factors
1.2 Meteorological factors
1.3 Biological factors
2. Hazards arising from the wildfire
2.1 Risk of burns by proximity to the fire
3. Management of hazards related to the transport
4. Management of hazards related to work load and to the manual handling of loads
4.1 Work load
4.2 Manual handling of loads
5. Management of hazards related to the use of machinery and hand tools
5.1 Hand tools
5.2 Light machinery
6. Management of hazards related to the use of ignition tools
6.1 Basic safety and health practices with Backfiring Equipment
7. Management of hazards related to the use of the heavy machinery and aircrafts
7.1 Heavy machinery
7.2 Aircrafts
8. Management of hazards related to the use of hose lines
8.1 Engine positioning and pump implementation
8.2 Laying down hose lines
9. Management of hygienic risks
IV. Other Aspects in Job Hazard Abatement Actions
1. Preventive Policy
1.1 Job Hazard Abatement Plan (JAAP)
2. Job Hazard Assessment
2.1 Job Hazard Assessment (JHA) and fire management technologies
2.2 Proposal and description of the evaluation method
2.3 Review of risk assessment
2.4 Substantial changes in normal working conditions
3. Emergency situations management and imminent risk situations
3.1 Emergency situations
3.2 Imminent and unavoidable danger situations
4. Health Surveillance
5. Liabilities and Insurances
6. Accidents investigation
7. Integration of job hazard abatement actions management in the prescribed burning plans
8. Considerations on the role in terms of job hazards abatement actions of different actors in a prescribed burn
V. Summary of recommendations
VI. Reference
I. Introduction and justification
1. Introduction
The following study is a contribution to structure and define which measures of labor risks prevention should be taken when we use fire as prevention and suppression tool. A multidiscipline approach shall be undertaken in the fields of: Forestry, labor risks prevention and emergency management of forest fires.
The use of fire in preventive forestry and fire suppression is not new. Historically, rangers and cattle breeders have largely implemented it. In recent decades, these techniques have been just rediscovered as useful and effective. The traditional techniques involving the wise use of fire have been lost in the last decades in most places. They can be obsolete respect to present requirements of safety and “tolerance zero” to forest fires, related to a modern society more and more urban and less conscious of the complexity of natural resources management. In other words, it has been lost not only a great part of the hereditary “know how”, but fire is also perceived like a dangerous and unfamiliar element. Therefore, very few examples of fire management survive (Quezel et al. 1982; Martinez, 2001) that provide adequate information on actual requirements for safety and labour health during these practices.
In addition, a prescribed burn plan should include relevant information to citizens on benefits and consequences of using fire in a controlled way.
In recent years, many agencies (world wide) had experienced catastrophic events while working to suppress wildland fires. Guadalajara (Spain) with 11 fatalities in 2007, Greece with 60 persons dead in 2008 season, Horta de Sant Joan (Spain) with 5 fatalities in 2009 or Los Angeles (USA) with 2 fire fighters dead in 2009. These events have created a renewed awareness and concern about safety, the impacts of wildland fire, and the integration of fire and resource management. As a result, many actions have been implemented to improve the safety and protect lives while fighting forest fires. Safe, effective and efficient wildland fire operations require a thorough understanding of many policies, principles and procedures.
This report wants to help in this task (i.e., preventing near-hits, injuries and fatalities of fire-fighters). In similar way as the “Risk Management – Safety” (USA Forest Service) web site ( helped to provide a lot of additional information on risk management wildland fire management.
2. Justification of preventive planning and job hazard assessment
The use of fire as new management tool implies a series of risks, both for actors and for observers and society in general. This risks had to be considered at the moment of solving its implementation. The European treaties and legislation require member countries to establish regulations for protecting workers health and for improving the work environment. As well, the OIT agreement nº155 (1987) pushes governments to formulate policies regarding Job hazard Abatement Actions. In Spain (and other countries of the European Union), the Constitution imposes to politicians the obligation of guarding “job safety and hygiene”. It constitutes a clear mandate to fulfil, in the specific sector of Human Resources like an additional activity of population health protection. The implementation ofthese generic mandates is shaped by a transposition of Directive 89/391/CEE of the European Community. In Spain, by Law 31/95 of November, 8th, on Job Hazard Abatement Actions (JHAA). This law is known in Spain as LPRL 31/95.
Anyway, the application of this Directive may be exclude in some suppression fire practices (backfire use). Then, safety reasons are looked in a different way. This would happen in occasion of serious catastrophes or similar events, when backfire actions are adopted to avoid a great eventual damage. Even so, it would be worthy to apply the principles indicated in the European norm. In addition, the Directive demands a specific norm for emergency workers (In Spain it is still to be written). For that reason, this study takes in consideration the philosophy and principles of Directive 89/391 and applies all the tasks regarding fire use. We certainly believe that this is a sound corollary of this Directive.
3. Regulation of Job Hazard Abatement Actions
Many deliberations on Job Hazard Abatement Actions are susceptible to be applied to these tasks. In most cases, they have been approved or modified during the last ten years. Nevertheless some considerations can be done.
At European level, there is not a specific norm for Job Hazard Abatement Actions either in the forestry sector or in the emergency and fire suppression one. Therefore the basic norm on JHAA is applied, except when it is explicitly excluded. Thus, COUNCIL DIRECTIVE of June, 12th 1989 on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work (89/391/EEC) (Framework Directive) in its scope sets:
“1.This Directive shall apply to all sectors of activity, both public and private (industrial, agricultural, commercial, administrative, service, educational, cultural, leisure, etc.).
2. This Directive shall not be applicable where characteristics peculiar to certain specific public service activities, such as the armed forces or the police, or to certain specific activities in the civil protection services inevitably conflict with it.
In that event, the safety and health of workers must be ensured as far as possible in the light of the objectives of this Directive.”
In its scope, definitely it will consider the specificities of that sector (activities and places where it is practised).
A direct consequence of the exclusion is a transposition of the Directive at national level. In Spain, the exclusion is found at article 2 of LPRL, when it deals with the operative services of civil protection, in case of serious risk, catastrophe or public calamity, and it excludes technical burnings in wildfire suppression actions. In spite of this, in the article the LPRL (JHAA) also adds:
« Nevertheless, this Law will inspire a specific norm to regulate the safety and health of workers who provide a service in the indicated activities. »
For that reason, the development of this project cannot be carried out anyways, but it must follow the principles and standards set by LPRL and the rest of applicable norms.
LPRL establishes the principles to create and fulfil any plan of prevention. Furthermore LPRL goes beyond the application of these principles, since it forces to include them in the development of productive activities that are not carried out if these principles are not fulfilled. These principles are, by order of subordination, the following ones:
- To avoid risks
- To evaluate the risks that cannot be avoided
- To fight the risks at the origin
- To adapt the work to individuals, especially as concerns the work place concept, teams and methods selection, while monotone and repetitive functions are carried out, in order to reduce effects on health.
- To consider the enhancement of the techniques and operations
- To replace what is dangerous by what is less or no risky at all.
- Developing a coherent overall prevention policy
- To prefer the collective protection measures to the individual protection measures.
- To give workers the best instructions by information and training.
On this basis, LPRL instrument tends towards an organizational model that integrates the safety of workers in any process and hierarchic level, as private and public.
Another example of exclusion, in Spain, regards the Real Decreto 1627/1997, of October, 24th, on the minimum requirements of safety and health in construction works. In the interpretation given by experts (Loscertales, 2002), forestry treatments (within which we can include controlled burnings) are excluded from the application of this norm. This interpretation coincides with the one given by labour authorities. In same cases the interpretation is not that trivial, as when we burn shrubs and grass to prepare and clean the ground, before a construction work. An example is the removing of vegetation in the basin of a future water reservoir. The European Council Directive 92/57/EEC of June, 24th 1992, on the implementation of minimum safety and health requirements at temporary or mobile construction sites, regulates this subject.
In this sense, the modification of LPRL by law 54/2003 (December, 12th) reforms the normative frame on occupational hazard prevention and modifies article 14.2 of LPRL, so that it is written up as follows:
«Article 14.2. In fulfilment of protection duties, the entrepreneur must guarantee the safety and health of workers he employs in all the aspects related to the work. On this basis, in fulfilment of his responsibilities, the entrepreneur will provide the prevention of occupational hazardby integrating the preventive activity in the company and adopting any measure necessary for the safety and health of workers. He shall take in consideration the specificities that are shown in the following articles, such as planning of occupational hazardprevention, evaluation of risks, workers information, seek advice from workers, workers’ participation and education, performance in case of emergency and serious and imminent risk, monitoring of health, and by the constitution of an organization and of needed means, as established in chapter IV of this law.
The entrepreneur shall develop a permanent monitoring action of the preventive activity, with the purpose of enhancing continuously the activities of identification, evaluation and control of risks that cannot be avoided and existing levels of protection. He shall make an adequate adaptation to the prevention measures indicated in the previous paragraph, if circumstances change and affect the accomplishment of a work. »
And according to article 7 of the same law, the following functions correspond to the competent public administrations:
“… promoting prevention, technical advising, monitoring, and controlling if subjects included in the application accomplish with the norm, assigning sanctions to the ones who infract the normative mentioned above …”
In order to fulfil the obligations from LPRL, we have to know previously which potential risks can affect us and to make a plan to avoid, reduce and control them. The Plan of Occupational Hazard Prevention must contain at least the following sections:
- Identification of all work places
- Description of potential risks
- General preventive measures
- Individual preventive measures (Work teams and PPT)
- Prevention planning and identification of mechanisms to inform workers and seek advice from them (workers)
- Periodic health monitoring of workers
- Plan of information and training
- Control of performances
- Revision of measures
All these objectives share the same policy on risks prevention, and they take into account that:
- All accidents can and must be avoided
- Risk zero does not exist
- People are the main assets of any company or agency
Essential tools: The risks assessment and the preventive planning of activities
A modification of LPRL is the new edition of article 16.2, where the evaluation of occupational hazard and the implantation of a prevention plan are described, like essential tools.
“Article 16.2. The evaluation of occupational hazardand the preventive planning of activities are the essential tools for the management and application of a risks prevention plan, that could be carried out by programmed phases, as explained in the following paragraphs:
- The entrepreneur shall make an initial evaluation of risks for the safety and health of workers. He shall consider, in general, nature of the activity, characteristics of the existing jobs and of workers who carry out them. He shall make a similar assessment when selecting teams, chemical substances and during the setting up of work places. The initial assessment shall consider the rest of activities to be carried out in accordance with the norm on specific risks and dangerous activities protection. The assessment shall be updated when the work conditions change and, in any case, it shall be reviewed, if necessary, based on actual damages for the health that have taken place.
Depending on results, the chief manager shall make periodic controls of the work conditions and of workers performance, in order to detect potentially dangerous situations.