Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Frequently Asked Questions about the Campbell Prediction System:

What do academics think of CPS?
What is different about this system of fire behavior prediction?
What is new about that?
Why not limit fire behavior education to the courses that are already taught?
Do the firefighters who attend CPS classes know their basics in fire behavior prediction?
How many have been taught this course of fire behavior prediction and tactics selection?

What is different about this system of fire behavior prediction?

CPS is designed to enable firefighters to make a prediction of potential changes in fire behavior while on the fireline, without a computer or nomograms, using special language to convey how you know what is about to happen.

What is new about that? CPS includes a fire behavior language used to describe a wildland fire. With it, you use a set of phrases and terms to describe the fire and how it is going to behave. You can describe the fire and describe the cause of its variations. You can compare the observed behavior to the unburned area ahead of the fire and predict where it is either dangerous or within control capabilities and select the tactic most likely to be successful, and communicate all that with a short and concise statement.

Why not limit fire behavior education to the courses that are already taught?

The fire behavior courses now required and taught (S-290, S-390 and S-490) all teach a system focused on planning. These courses teach how to describe a fire that has not yet started. Inputs of weather, topography and fuel are described and mathematically crunched to derive a potential flame length, rate of spread, and BTU's.

CPS starts after the fire is in the fuel. Here, the fire is demonstrating the effects of the wind, slope and fuel flammability variations. With these observations, the CPS can be used on the fireline and in planning to predict potential fire behavior changes.

Do the firefighters who attend CPS classes know their basics in fire behavior prediction?

No. CPS goes back to the basics by teaching cause and effect correctly. Most trained firefighters do not know the cause of wildland fuel flammability variations. These misconceptions are in the way of making predictions of fire behavior change.