El Dorado Organizational Learning Report

In his September 24, 2020 testimony before Congress, John Phipps, the Forest Service’s Deputy Chief of State and Private Forestry, stated “the system is not designed for this,” to illustrate the misalignment between the design of the wildland fire system and the reality that wildland fire responders routinely experience. The El Dorado Fatality provides an opportunity to reflect, learn, and redesign the system so it can better handle this new reality wildland fire responders are facing, and will continue to face into the future.

The Forest Service has identified itself as a learning organization committed to understanding and improving, but how do we fulfill the commitment to learning from this tragedy and move towards improvement? Throughout the Learning Review process, several reoccurring themes were identified that influenced the conditions leading to the death of Charlie Morton. The events surrounding Charlie’s death illustrate how these themes can play out on the ground, but these themes were not limited to this one event; the themes were further validated by focus groups to understand their role and impact on the larger wildland fire system. The purpose of naming these themes is not only to reduce the likelihood of another El Dorado type of fatality, but also to improve the overall system within which all wildland fire responders operate.