This is a story about a devastating forest fire that tragically claimed the lives of 13 firefighters in the mountain of Montana. It was 5th August, 1949. The weather was ripe for a forest fire – dry, hot and windy. A lightning strike at Mann Gulch started a blaze covering an area of 50 to 60 acres. A gulch is a deep valley with sharp inclines or slopes on either side. The fire was on the southern slope of the gulch. 15 smokejumpers were dispatched to fight the fire. Smokejumpers are fire fighters who have been trained to paradrop with equipment at a place near the fire to fight it. At about 4pm that day, a DC-47 plane carried the smokejumpers to the gulch and dropped them on the northern slope. The plan was to hike down the northern slope and then cross over the southern slope and then fight the fire from below as the fire usually travels up a mountain. Wagner Dodge, the foreman, and his team had hiked down almost to the bottom of the northern slope when they spotted smoke coming from below. They realized that sparks and embers from the fire in the southern slope had been carried by the wind to the northern slope and now there was a fire directly downhill from them. Dodge knew that the fire would now come roaring at them from below. He immediately ordered his men to drop their gear and run for safety towards the top of the slope. However, as Dodge looked back while running he realized that there was no hope that they would be able to out run the fire. The fire was progressing fast, and the slope they had to run up was pretty steep. That’s when Dodge came up with an ingenious counter intuitive solution. He decided to light what is now in the fire-fighting world called an escape fire. His idea was to light a fire at his feet and this fire would burn all the dry grass around him and burn away all the fuel a fire required and then if he stayed in the middle of the burnt-out area he would survive. The fire coming from slope below reached him it would not have anything to burn and hence would go around, leaving him unharmed. After he lit the escape fire, Dodge wet his handkerchief from the flask he carried, held it on his mouth and nose and dived face down in the middle of the burnt area. But before he did that, he shouted out to the team members around him and gestured at them to join him. Some of the men had run a bit far and because the sound of the fire coming from below they didn’t hear him. But many of his team members did. However, they continued running because they thought he was out of his mind. He had gone nuts. Dodge survived the fire but only one out of the remaining 14 smokejumpers out ran the fire and survived. What a tragic heart-breaking story. The question is why did his team not follow his direction and join him? Well, when we see something that doesn’t fit with our past experience, we tend to conclude that it wouldn’t work. Wagner Dodge didn’t have the opportunity or time to explain his innovation but in business we don’t always have a forest fire at our heels. We need to understand that we might need to take time to explain the why behind what we are doing and be patient with people’s initial lack of ability to value our new idea, innovation or insight. Business Points ( Tags ) #innovation #decimation #PastExperience
