WHILE ONE DOOR OPENS, ANOTHER BURNS DOWN- a CAMPFIRE story

It has always been a unique conversation starter to say you live in Paradise CA.

Preparing myself to speak at the Synthetic & Simulation Training Expo in Orlando Florida, I glance in at the large room filled with industry leaders and training champions who had innovated and driven our countries preparedness standards, ensuring the safety of each of us from land, sea, and air. I was excited to be there and more than ready to share my passion for immersive, experiential training utilizing sensory realism to enhance learner engagement and training recall. 

The ringing of my phone brings me back to the present, with only 30 minutes before the presentation, I needed to stay focused. My husband begins, "there is a fire heading our way, and we might need to evacuate, what do you want me to grab from your office?"

I paused, my train of thoughts disrupted once more in an onslaught of new information. We had been through this drill before, Paradise CA with 30,000 residents is one of several small communities snaking up the Northern California mountains, the warm summer days and cool evenings provides lush seasonal growth and picturesque foliage of burgundy-copper leaves wrapped around turquoise lakes. Long winding trails dot three separate canyons, leading upwards from the waterways, cutting through the foliage and zigzagging up the steep mountainous terrains. Surrounded by pine trees, aspen, dogwoods and undergrowth, Paradise was an outdoor enthusiast dream and an Incident Commanders nightmare. 

Ten minutes before stage time and another call comes in. This time I can hear the adrenaline in his voice.

“Hun? I am calling to say goodbye; I don’t think I’m going to make it out of here." 

I am surprised....disbelieving, "what do you mean?" Thinking I must be misunderstanding the situation or perhaps in need of better cell phone service, my heart rate accelerates slightly as I brusquely request more information, "tell me what you see......" 

"There is fire all around us, we are bottlenecked in, and no one is moving, the windows are too hot to touch, and the sky is dark. There are cars on fire, and an ambulance just exploded in front of me." 

For the past ten years, my company Moulage Concepts has designed training realism for thousands of responders. I quickly run through different scenarios and with a voice more firm than therapeutic I demand, "think of nothing else but getting down that hill! Are there any cement buildings? Can you return to the house and get into the cement crawl space?" I frantically try to think of something relevant, my mind racing for a back-up plan...

My phone starts to chime as his photos begin to arrive, once lush forests are now bright orange with flames shooting up through the treetops and engulfing the landscape. Large burning embers blow in from the sides, creating streaks in the air and landing on his truck. What had started as a beautiful California morning rapidly shifted into a dark, forbidding haze, choking out all light except for the glowing orange landscape of what was once a quiet suburban community.

“I have to go," he says, sounding shaken. The phone cuts to silence.

Pausing a few moments to steady my breath, I quickly glance at my reflection in the mirrored windows on the way to the conference room, by outwardly appearance nothing has shifted. I once more survey the group as I step up to the podium, a door is slowly opening as I begin speaking on the value of training realism in cognitive decision making for disasters like active shooters, acts of terrorism, and California Wildland Fires.

There are moments in every critical scenario when you question your training. Your heart rate goes up as your patient's information comes together, do you understand what you are seeing, hearing, feeling and even smelling? Are you taking in new information or relying on schematic data? Are you second guessing your response? What if it's a child? Every precious second count in critical cases, your mind moves quickly through the moments, filtering out the perceived irrelevant while becoming suspended in the details. 

Thirty thousand residents began the same desperate journey through gridlocked roads leading them away from the CampFire in Paradise CA. Not everyone made it through to share their story.

A VEILED and UNSTABLE PEACE

Lurking just below the surface and hidden from our awareness awaits legendary hallmarks of "before" and "after" moments. Just as the California CampFire has become the deadliest fire in California's history, and the most fatalities due to fire in the United States since the 1918 Cloquet Fire in Minnesota, the tragedy we watched unfold from around the country bridges our experiences to survivors of Active shooters, MCI and even 9-11. We are forever marked by the chasm between the two; the conventional life before 8:35 a.m. on a beautiful November morning to the unique landscape of surviving an MCI event.

There was nothing peculiar about Thursday, November 8th, 2018, yet all along a perfect storm was brewing, taking the lives of 86 people, consuming 153,336 acres in 17 days, destroying 13,972 homes, 528 commercial buildings, and 4,293 other structures.

A TRIBUTE TO THOSE THE RUN IN, WHEN OTHERS RUN OUT

What kept the 2018 CampFire from surpassing the 1918 Cloquet Fire? The vigilance and preparedness of those that respond, our Police, our Fire, our EMS, and our Military; those who subject themselves to societal dangers to save strangers. When the veil is lifted and our peace destroyed, we look to our public servants to bring order back from the chaos. 

The men and women that came to the aid of the CampFire saved countless lives over those days.  There has been little mention of their heroic deeds, the danger they put themselves in and the hundreds of people alive today because of their actions. There are superheroes among us and they wear badges instead of capes.

SUPERPOWER READINESS

In our rapidly changing environments, our responder's superpowers don't come from magic wands, movie screens or capes and masks providing insightful opportunities for intervention and growth. True superpower readiness comes from dedication to strategic, often uncomfortable learning, a willingness to fail, and an identification of the unknowns. Active shooters, fires traveling at 88 miles per minute and monsters that won't stay in their cages have required us to think deeper about providing performance opportunities that don't just decrease errors but increase training experience and insight, an investment we owe to the men and women who respond to our emergencies every day.

Moreover, are we asking ourselves the same hard questions? As community leaders, trainers and advocates, we are responsible for providing every resource to equip them to succeed; are we asking them what training tools they require to feel prepared for their unknowns and are we creating open communication for honest answers? 

We are fortunate to live the days of our lives in a primarily comfortable, if unstable peace. The ordinary only becomes extraordinary during moments of opportunistic destruction, when our perceptions are forced to shift, dismantling the order on an otherwise typical day. Our capabilities to train for MCI events have never been more robust than it is today; will we remain content to check off our training boxes or do we embrace the uncomfortable by lifting the veil?  

To our Military, Police, Fire, and EMS professionals answering the call, Thank you.