A new year almost always comes with new resolutions, a commitment to do better in some aspect of your life. Often to improve, you have to learn from the past.
In November 2019 the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved and finalized the Woolsey Fire After Action Review. The report is notable for its scope and size, which is appropriate given the vast devastation of the fire.
In the fields of public safety and emergency management, After Action Reviews (AAR) are commonplace and often required. A practice that originated in the military, AARs are intended to identify best practices to repeat and mistakes to avoid, with the goal of improving performance for all. But for all their alleged effectiveness, AARs are often ignored or dismissed due to the difficulty in changing current operating practices or because organizations needing to adopt lessons learned are already understaffed and overtasked. That will not be the case with the Woolsey Fire AAR.
QuinnWilliams does not know the authors of the report on a personal level, but we have great respect for their work. The report was commissioned by Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl and she called the report “one of the most comprehensive reviews ever conducted in California.”
The Southern California fire agencies are some of the best and most exercised in the nation. They are known for their willingness to assist each other through mutual aid to combat regional fires. But when the Woolsey Fire broke out on November 8, 2018, "they could not have planned for a complete exhaustion of California’s limited firefighting resources brought on by a regional wildfire weather threat in conjunction with the Camp Fire, a mass casualty shooting in Ventura County, and the Ventura County Hill Fire, which began just before the Woolsey Fire started."
“The size and speed of the Woolsey Fire, at times, outpaced the early efforts of some of the largest and most experienced and capable agencies in the United States" reads the report. "What occurred in less than 24 hours was not anticipated by any prior plan or preparedness exercise."
In Los Angeles County 1,075 homes and 46 commercial structures were destroyed, with another 189 damaged. More than 250,000 were forced to evacuate while 96,949 acres, or 151.5 square miles, burned.
“Even some of the largest, most experienced agencies in the United States were, at times, overwhelmed in the first hours by this incident’s speed and weight of impact,” the report reads. The authors call for “more specific evacuation plans that can adapt to major road closures and fast-pace disaster,” as well as better preparation and communication. The report also includes a warning for residents: “The public has a perception that public agencies can always protect them ... an incident the size of the Woolsey Fire shows, this is not always possible.”
According to an article from the Harvard Business Review, "an AAR should be more verb than noun—a living, pervasive process that explicitly connects past experience with future action. That is the AAR as it was conceived back in 1981 to help Army leaders adapt quickly in the dynamic, unpredictable situations they were sure to face."
Overall, the report includes more than 80 recommendations, including suggestions for better communications, a study to help agencies better understand the necessary ratio of emergency workers in relation to the population of people and animals, and strategies to help fire officials deal with the “fog of war” that can hamper situational awareness.
In response to the release of the report, Kevin McGowan, Director of the County’s Office of Emergency Management told the Los Angeles Times, “We’re committed to being the most prepared and most capable county in the country as it relates to preparedness, planning and recovery,” McGowan said. “We’re using this report to drive change and improvement countywide."
