SAFENET

• ⋅ Annual Statistics
• ⋅ FOIA
• ⋅ Accessibility
• ⋅ Privacy Statement
• ⋅ Disclaimer

SAFENET

Wildland Fire Safety & Health Reporting Network

SAFENET Event Information

Create Agency Response

SAFENET ID:

20230928-0002

Event Start Date:

09/01/2023 1000

Event Stop Date:

09/27/2023 1800 

Incident Name:

Pogo Mine Road

Fire Number:

QE5X 

State:

Alaska

Jurisdiction:

State

Local Unit:

Delta

Incident Type:

Wildland

Incident Activity:

Line

Stage of Incident:

Extended Attack, Other

Position Title:

AFMO 

Task:

Firefighter Engine Crew 

Management Level:

4

Resources Involved:

Engines, and equipment 

Contributing Factors

Contributing Factors:

Human Factors, Other

Human Factors:

Decision Making, Leadership  

Other Factors:

circumventing nwcg and state safety policies 

Narrative

Describe in detail what happened including the concern or potential issue, the environment (weather, terrain, fire behavior, etc), and the resulting health issue.

During my assignment we were told that to clocked 16-hour days we would need to do it as 'black ops" this meant that we would not be calling dispatch and letting them know we were working or where we were located. The problem with this is that dispatch scheduled everyone off and no-one would know if there was an incident. We tried to explain this to the AFMO and he repeated that if we did not want to follow his directions, he would release us and give us a negative review. He said he knew what is best and this type of activity was okay. We all worked for 2 weeks with no radio calls and got 16 hours but were only on site for about 6 hour, 8 of those hours were in the dark.

Immediate Action Taken

Reporting Individual : please describe actions you took to correct or mitigate the unsafe/unhealthful event.

We talked several times to the AFMO about safety issues and he would either tell us not to worry or he would get angry and hover over you while telling you he knows more about fire than anyone. So, he bullied everyone into compliance and would not accept any feedback. We also told the other 2 techs and they told us not to ruin it for everyone because they did not get all the overtime, they needed to make it through the winter, and we are trying to catch up.

Return to Top