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Paul Gleason
Hero of the Dude Fire, Father
of LCES, and Much, Much More
“Paul Gleason’s contributions to wildland fire
safety have not only been important, they have been life saving. Besides firefighter
Jeff Hatch—who owes his life to Paul’s heroic actions on the tragic Dude Fire—I
am certain there are many more men and women still going about their lives
on this earth due to Paul’s unmatched leadership in wildland fire safety.
On behalf of the thousands of women and men in fire management all across
the United States, I thank you, Paul.”
Michael Hilbruner
U.S. Forest Service’s National Applied Fire Ecologist
Presenting Paul Gleason with the Golden Pulaski Lifetime
Achievement Award
At the 2001 National Hotshot Workshop
| An
unexpected fire blow-up chases hundreds of firefighters out of remote
Walk Moore Canyon in Arizona’s Tonto National Forest. On his radio,
Paul Gleason learns that a tiny band of firefighters are cut off by
this fire front. They are entrapped. As others flee for a safety zone
(that Paul had helped initiate and construct just an hour before), the
veteran hotshot superintendent realizes people are in peril. With their
own crews out of harm’s way inside this safety zone, Paul quickly convinces
two other hotshot superintendents to join him to search for the imperiled
firefighters. Fifty-mile-an-hour winds push 150-foot flame lengths toward
them as they stitch their way back down into the smoke-filled canyon.
Suddenly, from inside the quickly encircling flames, they see firefighter
Jeff Hatch—seriously burned—stumbling uphill, trying to flee the fire.
He has lost his hard hat. His head and shoulders are smoking. He is
on fire. Gleason and the others yell at him. But Hatch can’t move. Despite
the advancing flames, Gleason goes into the fire toward him. With the
heat overcoming both of them, Gleason stretches his arm out, hooks a
finger around Hatch’s belt-loop, and pulls him from the fire. Gleason
saves his life. |
During his longtime, nationally-acclaimed leadership role
as hotshot fire crew superintendent, Paul realized that the country’s legion
of wildland firefighters needed a more effective safety credo. He knew the
existing “10 Standard Fire Orders” and cumbersome “18 Watch Out Situations”
just weren’t getting the job done. He took it upon himself to do something
for the national wildland fire program. Using his own initiative and field
ingenuity, Paul became the brainchild of the “LCES—Lookouts, Communication,
Escape Routes, Safety Zones” system. He knew if firefighters lived and breathed
these four essential elements—at all times—within the wildland fire environment,
they could be better prepared to avoid peril on the fireline. In the mid-80s,
he even had LCES on his license plates. Today, all wildland firefighters are
required to heed Gleason’s life-saving innovation.
After his two decades in the hotshot program, Paul continued
his career as fire management officer and fire ecologist. He also helped establish
a vital chainsaw safety program for the U.S. Forest Service.
On Paul Gleason, from the book “Fire
Line – Summer Battles of the West” by Michael Thoele:
“At forty-four, though he would
not have claimed it for himself, he ranked as one of the lesser fire gods.
A Pacific Northwest hotshot crew boss, he was something of a legend in his
own time, a tough, aggressive, intellectual firefighter who was the stuff
of stories told in fire camps from Alaska to New Mexico. In the world of Western
wildfire, only two or three hotshot bosses were seen as his equal.”
“He had marched through all the ranks in the
infantry of forest fire. He had paid his dues and earned his spurs. He was
known as a man who quoted Chinese philosophers, read books on the art of warfare,
and, in the off-seasons, was a rock climber who took on the big walls all
over the West. His was summoned often to teach fire tactics to others.”
We honor Paul Gleason for the unmatched heroics he illustrated
and dedicated his entire career—his life—to: fighting wildfire.
Return to Paul's BioBits
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