Support the Paul Gleason Wildland Fire Scholarship
Paul Gleason was a highly skilled and respected wildland firefighter who dedicated his 38-year field career to improving firefighting safety for his many colleagues. An expert in firefighting operations, fire behavior, and fire ecology, he worked on over 500 wildland and prescribed fires throughout the United States. In doing so, Paul supervised hotshot crews for over 20 years, co-pioneered sawyer safety training for firefighters and developed the Lookouts, Communications, Escape Routes and Safety Zones (LCES) safety concept now taught to all wildland firefighters. After mandatory firefighter retirement at age 55 in 2001, Paul served at Colorado State University as a well-loved adjunct Professor of Fire Science until his untimely death from colon cancer in 2003. A true leader and mentor to thousands of people, Paul always identified first with the "ground-pounder" and taught that every firefighter on the line has a personal responsibility for his and her own safety by becoming a "student of fire."