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Human Factors Documents

Using Social Science to Understand and Improve Wildland Fire Organizations: An Annotated Reading List, 2007
http://www.wildfirelessons.net/documents/Human_Factors_Bibliography_0907.pdf
"The wildland fire community has spent the past decade trying to understand and account for the role of human
factors in wildland fire organizations.....Here, we have compiled and organized knowledge from a variety of social science disciplines so that it can be used to improve organizational practices related to firefighter and public safety, to assess the effectiveness of safety campaigns, and to improve firefighter safety training. This annotated reading list
summarizes approximately 270 books, articles, and online resources that address scientific and management
concepts helpful for understanding the human side of fire management..."

The 2005 Human Factors Conference was summarized in one document by Dennis Talbert, SOF1. It links to all of the presentations and papers delivered there.
Notes from the Eighth Wildland Fire Safety Summit – The Human Factors Workshop – 10 Year Later, held April 26-28, 2005, in Missoula, are attached. There were 273 registered participants, including top professionals (scientists, educators, and practitioners) in human factors in the wildland fire community.
http://www.wildfirelessons.net/documents/Human_Factors_Workshop_2005_Safety_Summit_Summary_rev1.doc

The Emotionally Intelligent Firefighter: An Unspoken Human Dimension of Wildland Firefighting by George Solverson, Safety Officer, Boise, ID, August, 13, 2007
"The human factors revolution of the 90s transformed the way the wildland firefighter community thinks and feels about the business of fire safety. It has shaped the focus of fire conferences, training curriculum, and professional safety staff meetings. Regardless of all our efforts to understand why tragedies continue on wildland fires, we still shy away from a frank and open discussion on the powerful role human emotions play in the outcome of these significant events."
http://www.wildfirelessons.net/documents/Emotional%20Intelligent%20Firefighter_08_13_07_pm.pdf

Appendix C: Human factors - Alabaugh Canyon Fire Entrapment and Shelter Deployment, authored in 2007 by Charles S. Richmond
http://www.wildfirelessons.net/documents/Alabaugh_Fire_APPENDIX_C_Human_Factor.pdf

Identifying Why Even Well-Trained Firefighters Make Unsafe Decisions: A Human Factors Interview Protocol, from the 2005 Safety Summit, by
M. M. Omodei, J. McLennan, and C. Reynolds "The primary cause of 80% of accidents and near misses in North American wildland firefighting has been attributed to human factors."
http://www.wildfirelessons.net/documents/Omodei%20et%20al.pdf

Build a Healthy Safety Culture Using Organizational Learning and High Reliability Organizing, written by David Christenson, U.S. Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center
"Wildland firefighters pursue individual learning as a natural activity, an essential part of their professional and personal growth experience. Practical and applied learning is intimately linked to any unit’s productivity and ability to effectively and safely manage the unpredictable. Today’s fire organizations face similar needs because they too are in the midst of increasingly diverse demands for transformations requiring renewal. High performance is expected in predictable situations that units can plan for. The ability to manage unexpected events that no one planned for is also required in order to be considered “a highly reliable organization.”
http://www.wildfirelessons.net/documents/Christenson_Safety_LO_HRO.pdf

Nine HRO Assessments you can use to audit your own organization with advice from the authors of Managing The Unexpected, the new 2007 Edition
How To Use The HRO Audits and Results. (Assessments 1, 23, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

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