 Did this happen? How did this happen? Could this ever happen to you? After studying the underlying circumstances that surround this accident, the answer is easy. Yes. What human equipment and environmental conditions led up to this event? Why or why didn't firefighters see this coming? The following is an actual engine roll over accident that happened on a large wildfire incident during the 2008 fire season. You are on a wildland fire engine crew. Your engine is deployed as part of a type 3 engine strike team to an off-unit wildfire 400 miles away. Your captain with 19 years experience for the fifth time this season has been deployed to another fire as a member of an incident management team. Therefore once again on this assignment he is not with you. Your fire engine operator who is now your acting captain is still new to the engine. He arrived at the district late last winter. Your assigned driver on this fire is also new to the engine. He just transferred from another unit last month. Another crew member has only one previous year of fire experience. For your two remaining crew members this is their very first fire season. Before you leave on this assignment visual checks by your acting captain and acting engine operator reveal that your engine's four rear tires are all worn and should be replaced. It is determined to do this after you return from the 800 mile round trip to this new fire. Because they don't want to delay or jeopardize their mobilization to this fire this decision to delay replacing the tires made sense to them at the time. It is now your crew's fourth night shift on this fire. After the past three shifts your crew and other engine crews discuss the difficulty and danger you confront every time you negotiate the fire areas narrow winding mountain roads. So far every incident action plan and operational briefing on this fire has emphasized the safety issues regarding these narrow and dangerous roads. The importance of traveling at safe speeds is always stressed. Yesterday your driver operator on this fire mistakenly steers the engine over a chalk block. This maneuver causes a blowout on your passenger side outside rear dual tire. The fire's ground support unit replaces the tire with a mismatched tread pattern and circumference sized tire. There is now a greater than one inch diameter difference between these two dual passenger side rear tires. When you're acting captain questions this the ground support unit mechanic reassures that there shouldn't be a problem. At the 6 p.m. briefing for your fourth shift the incident management team once again emphasizes the need to drive slow. Three more driving accidents occurred during today's day shift. A mirror strike between two vehicles. A non-injury T-bone collision. A crew carrier that drives into a roadside ditch. Before we continue on with what is about to happen as you drive these narrow winding roads out to your fire assignment this evening let's take a look back at your fire season. Believe it or not that's when your upcoming accident actually started to happen. Since he came on board last month you and your fellow engine crew members have been uneasy about one of your crew members driving abilities and style. With your captain gone this person is now your assigned driver on this fire but you have never shared these important driver operator safety observations and concerns with your engine operator, engine captain or your unit's fire management personnel. On your way to the fire at 7 40 p.m. rounding a moderate curve you feel the passenger side nearly repaired rear dual tires suddenly slip and slam off the road's asphalt edge. As your driver tries to steer the engine back onto the road the vehicle barrels sideways into a full out-of-control skid back across the entire roadway. The engine careens up the far embankment on the opposite side of the road and crashes back over onto its passenger side. All five of your crew members receive minor injuries. Everyone is transported by ambulances to a local hospital where later tonight you're all released. When the back tires first leave the asphalt edge your acting captain yells at the driver to slow down but it is far too late. Crash witnesses estimate that the engine was traveling between 30 and 34 miles per hour. The equipment specialist evaluation estimates that the engine was traveling from 50 to 55 miles per hour. The police report says at a minimum the engine was moving at a rate of 56 miles per hour. The posted speed limit here is 35 miles per hour. One, learn to raise issues of concern. Prior to the rollover this engine's crew members have their own issues and concerns regarding one driver's behind the wheel behaviors and tendencies. However they never voice these safety issues to their crew's command. We all need to realize that each of us at all levels at all times should think of ourselves as a safety officer or lookout for our entire crew or unit. We need to share what we are seeing from our unique perspectives with our entire crew and command. In this way developing thorough situational awareness should always be an ongoing crew responsibility. Therefore if you see something say something. Two, competing commitments. During 2008 this engine's captain is absent from all of his engine's off-unit assignments due to his commitment with an incident management team. The engine captain is not alone. His entire home units fire leadership reinforces the culture of supporting regional and national incident management teams. This situation of competing commitments, people serving on incident management teams and thereby being unable to fulfill their home units fire responsibilities is not unique to this engine's unit. Three, pay attention to details. The engine's damaged rear tire is erroneously replaced by ground support with a mismatched tire with different tread pattern, height and width. This engine is a Model 62 International. The November 2002 operators manual for this international vehicle informs dual tires should be matched using tires of equivalent size. Tires that differ more than a quarter of an inch in diameter or three-quarters inch in circumference should not be mounted on the same dual wheel assembly. Post accident findings determined that this mismatched tire contributed to the rollover accident. Post accident findings also indicate that at the time of the rollover the engine driver had the vehicle's retarder device in the on position. This could have contributed to the vehicle's loss of control. That's why all engine drivers should learn and implement the proper use of this retarder braking device at all times. Four, roads can be as dangerous as flames. After several vehicle accidents near misses and finally this engine rollover this fire's incident management team implements a safer one-way traffic management plan. This is the same traffic plan already used by two other large fires in this general area during this same year and yet on this third large fire the plan was not implemented until several days after the rollover accident. In the future when fire incident commanders are aware of continual traffic concerns and hazards implementing a formal change in traffic management should occur more rapidly. You as part of this country's wildland fire organization need to treat all accidents and near misses as valuable learning opportunities. Rather than focus on what you might think that employees did wrong it is much more important for you and for all of us to understand why, what they did made sense to them at the time. This potentially fatal rollover accident has provided us with many important lessons. These include if you see a risk or hazard all employees need to feel empowered to speak up. The need to balance home unit leadership responsibilities with regional and national commitments and to ensure that critical leadership positions are always filled or backfilled. On incidents the ability to identify and act swiftly to ensure that all road travel is as safe as possible should be a top priority. As you proceed forward with your own wildland fire experience you should become better at correcting and reinforcing appropriate actions and behaviors. Behaviors that will always help to ensure your safety and survival inside the high-risk wildland fire environment that is your workplace.