NWT chief coroner Garth Eggenberger has released nine recommendations for the GNWT's Department of Environment and Climate Change (ECC) following the death of wildland firefighter Adam Yeadon on July 15, 2023.

Yeadon died battling a blaze near his home community of Fort Liard during last year's destructive wildfires. For much of the time since, Eggenberger has been investigating the 25-year-old's death. On Oct. 16, he publicly circulated his recommendations, which are as follows: 

- The Department of ECC should ensure that all crew leaders/supervisors have danger tree assessor training before overseeing firefighters working in the field.

- The department should ensure that anyone certified to use a chainsaw as part of their work has danger tree assessor training before using a chainsaw during live fire events.

- The department should conduct a third-party review of all safety equipment provided to its firefighters to ensure that they meet or exceed industry standards.

- The department should consider the more protective Bullard Wildfire Helmet FH911XL as a potential replacement for all front-line firefighters to help prevent future deaths.

- The department should use the incident command system (ICS) whenever firefighters are deployed during any type of fire operations SA¹ú¼ÊÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½” suppressing and controlling wildfires, constructing fire or containment lines, equipment operation, etc.

- The department should review fire crew minimums when deploying personnel to fire events and ensure that no less than three "Type 1" certified wildfire fighters are deployed to active wildfires where they are engaging in initial attack, sustained attack and mop-up.

- The department should only deploy "Type 3" firefighters for sustained attack and mop-up activities, and not as initial attack wildfire fighters.

- The department should establish specific fire crew personnel minimum staffing numbers for each task and ensure that crews are not deployed unless the minimum crew personnel number is met.

- The department should develop and maintain a standardized personal protective equipment (PPE) manual for all personnel within the Forestry Management Division to be included in the greater ECC personal protective equipment (PPE) manual, which will be reviewed every three years, at minimum.