Expert can talk about firefighters' safety rules, California wildfire
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The deadly fire near Palm Springs, Calif., is likely to affect how we fight and talk about future wildfires, says a Purdue University expert in communication who studies the management and practice of safety in wildland firefighting.It also will affect how the media cover the fire and compare this fire to others, says Jennifer Thackaberry Ziegler, an assistant professor of communication.
"This fire is not taking the typical sequence of events," Ziegler says. "The fatalities of the firefighters are the first piece of news we've heard about this particular fire. Usually, it is the last piece of news. This fire provides the public a chance to appreciate — in real time — how challenging it is for firefighters to navigate all the hazards they face. In the past, the public hears about trials of firefighting after the worst is over and they have to reconstruct what it must have been like to fight the fire."
The wildfire in Riverside, Calif., that has claimed four lives has been called one of the deadliest fires in Southern California since the Inaja fire in 1956, which triggered the development of the "Ten Standard Fire Orders." These orders are safety rules that have been taught to all federal wildland firefighters since 1957. Ziegler is studying the use of these fire orders in accident investigations and in resulting public perceptions about firefighter safety.
"My research demonstrates how the Forest Service and other agencies have done a very good job using the fire orders to convey to the public that they maintain control over both nature and their people," Ziegler says. "Fatalities usually signal a loss of control over people. But even when they happen the agencies are usually able to quickly control the fire.
"But in this case firefighters have died, and yet the agencies have only begun to contain the fire. So right at the beginning, and while it is a top media story, there is not the typical sense of control over both nature and people."
Ziegler's research interests are in the origin and 50-year history of the "Ten Standard Fire Orders," how they have been used in accident investigations over time, as well as current initiatives that attempt to qualify their authority. She also has examined the role the fire orders play in wildland fire culture. For example, the guidelines are sometimes referred to as the "ten commandments of safe firefighting" and have played an important role in firefighter memorializing.
Ziegler also studies the rhetoric of accident investigation, media framing and public relations linked to specific firefighting tragedies, such as the 1994 Storm King Mountain fire near Glenwood Springs, Colo., that killed 14 firefighters, the 2001 Thirtymile fire near Twisp, Wash., that killed four firefighters, and the 2003 Cramer Fire that killed two firefighters at Salmon-Challis National Forest in Idaho.
Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, (765) 494-9723, (765) 412-0864, apatterson@purdue.edu
Source: Jennifer Thackaberry Ziegler, (765) 494-3302, jthackaberry@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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