Journalists No Longer Eligible for Wildfire 'Red Cards'

By: Sonya Moore As another wildfire season looms out West, journalists can no longer receive "Red Cards," a certification from the National Inter-agency Fire Center (NIFC) that shows a person has gone through the three- to five-day training sessions on wildfire safety. But Red Cards aren't a necessity for wildfire reporting in the first place.

"Most of the reporters who cover wildfires don't have one or don't ask for one," said Rose Davis, spokesperson for the NIFC. Red Cards are documentation of qualification for government employees and not reporters. In the past, members of the media were allowed into the classes on a stand-by basis and those who completed the training came out with knowledge of how to act in a wildfire situation, sharing the language and terminology used by firefighters. Davis said, however, that even without Red Card certification, the two-day Basic Firefighting and Beginning Fire Behavior classes will remain open to journalists.

News of the NIFC's policy change spread this week with the announcement that Anchor Point Group LLC (www.anchorpointgroup.com), a wildfire management consulting firm, will expand its one-day wildfire seminars to Denver, New York, Los Angeles and Seattle. The daylong classes train journalists in wildfire safety as well as ways to get a better story.

Chris White, co-owner of Anchor Point, sees the seminars as probably the only venue that will be consistently open to members of the media who want to learn about wildfires, but is reluctant to use the word "replace" when it comes to comparison with the NIFC's training. "It's specifically tailored to the media and the journalist," White said of his classes.

White agrees that Red Cards are not a requirement for covering wildfires, but he believes that some firefighters have treated it with some deference in the past, with reporters who "flash a Red Card getting a wink and a nod." It's the sort of confusion that the NIFC hopes to get rid of, Davis says, by strictly limiting Red Cards to government employees. White believes the status of the Red Card has more to do with the relationship between firefighters and journalists who are experienced versus those who are not.

As an experienced career firefighter, White witnessed not only the rift between firefighters and the media -- mostly due to reporters not properly prepared -- but also reporters getting caught in too many dangerous situations. White says some people involved with fighting wildfires look to reporters thinking, "You're not playing the game, and you're drawing our attention from the fire and creating a risk." Many times, to prevent journalists from becoming a safety risk to themselves and those trying to fight a wildfire, they can be kept away and out of the loop. "And it's wrong," White asserts, since the media can be a powerful ally and component of the fire team.

White says the NIFC's sessions are time-consuming, and reporters end up "only getting a small amount of pertinent information," because the training is geared toward firefighters. He describes [Anchor Point's] instructors as "primarily experienced fire fighters with a passion for journalism." Besides basic safety training such as first aid, recognizing and avoiding extreme fire behavior and use of a fire-shelter in extreme cases, Anchor Point also provides reporters with the necessary tools, vocabulary and tips to get better stories and story angles. White says the desired result is not only for a safer journalist but also to help the reporter "look the look and talk the talk," which proves invaluable in getting information from officials.

"To me it's an absolute minimum just to be safe and to have some clue of how to get information on the story that no one else can," says White, who found it appalling how journalists and their superiors ignore the necessity of proper education. Anchor Point is currently proposing a "Blue Card" concept specifically for journalists. White believes that there should be some physical means to see that a journalist has taken the time to educate himself or herself. This idea is being dealt with on a state-by-state basis. "Everyone's kinda kicking it around," White says.

White wants to see the media become more proactive and work now to propose a policy. "If they wait too long, the powers that be will set the rules," White warns.

Another source for safety information on wildfire reporting is www.hazardousmedia.com.