Report Says 4 Deaths Were Result of Negligence

YAKIMA, Wash., Sept. 26 (AP) — Four firefighters were killed in a July forest fire in the northern Cascade Range because basic safety rules had not been followed, the United States Forest Service said in a report released today.

Firefighters and managers failed to follow the most basic safety rules in battling the July 10 fire, the report said, including identifying escape routes, being aware of weather forecasts and posting lookouts.

At critical times, fire managers and forest personnel at the Thirty Mile Fire also failed to assess accurately the behavior of the fire, the potential for it to get out of control and the flammability of the forest, the report said.

"The Thirty Mile Fire tragedy could have been prevented," said Jim Furnish, a Forest Service deputy chief who led a nine-member team of investigators.

The Forest Service chief, Dale Bosworth, said at a news conference that it was too soon to say who or in what way fire managers and supervisors might be held accountable for the mistakes.

The fire was in the Okanogan National Forest in the northern Cascades and killed Devin A. Weaver, 21; Jessica L. Johnson, 19; and Karen L. FitzPatrick, 18, all of Yakima; and Tom L. Craven, 30, of Ellensburg.

In interviews, firefighters and managers have cited several mistakes made that day, including not following safety rules, ignoring signs of danger and delays in getting sufficient water to the fire early.

The report said work and rest cycles were disregarded. That resulted in mental fatigue, which "significantly degraded the vigilance and decision-making ability of those involved," it said.

The report criticized the people in charge of the fire scene, saying they made decisions that led to the entrapment of the firefighters.

Investigators also said the Forest Service should have closed Chewuch River Road to civilians. Two civilians became trapped with the firefighters because the area had not been evacuated, the report said.

"Leadership's failure to respond to concerns and observations by key individuals exacerbated circumstances that led to the entrapment," it said.

Firefighters did not seem to recognize the seriousness of the situation they were in until the fire was right on top of them, Mr. Furnish said. Some even snapped photographs as the fire was bearing down.

In addition, the report said fire safety equipment was improperly used, contributing to injuries.

The Thirty Mile Fire started as an abandoned campfire about 1.5 miles south of the site where the firefighters died. A search is under way for the person or people who built the crude fire ring to cook hot dogs and then left it, without any apparent attempts to snuff it out.

This report was brought to the attention of another forum (email) by an antogonist-disrupter there who wrote the following:

Those who remember this exchange from a few weeks ago will recall that I predicted that the investigation would show a major screw-up in terms of training and command decision. One of our more emotional members took the right-wing web site Free Republic and a number of conservative talk show hosts at their word and blamed the disaster on the Endangered Species Act. They of course lied - even had the dispatcher not violated law, policy and long established practice the fire would probably still have gone out of control.

Had the crew not wasted time and disobeyed orders they probably would have lived. Those who took shelter properly did.

Note that two pumps the firefighters had were capable of moving far more water than the helicopters possibly could. Problem was they didn't work. Had the forest Service been adequately funded perhaps we could properly equip these crews and properly train them.

======================

The parts of this comment that I've made bold is what I'd like help with from those here who know the situation better. Also, as this disrupter didn't back up his bold words with any evidence (it didn't appear in the AP story) the forum now has an open question to him to back them up with evidence. If anyone here knows more details, I'd like to know before hand of what half-truth he's planning on foisting so he can be nailed.

Furthermore, I'm reasonably sure that the USFS would go out of its way to CYA its policies and deference to ESA while asking for more money. What better way than to blame the victims of this trajedy? As the heroes cannot defend themselves, we must if we can.

Please come through FReoples.

From the local paper in Yakima. I happen to live there.

Requests for Helicopter Water Drops Came late

Published in the Herald-Republic on Sunday, September 2, 2001

By TOM ROEDER YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Concerns over the federal Endangered Species Act delayed the use of helicopters to battle the Thirtymile Fire by 48 minutes. But that delay came only after commanders at the blaze waited for hours before deciding aircraft were needed, documents from the fire show.

That contradicts the account of Colorado's Republican U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, who made national headlines three weeks after the July 10 fire when he alleged that the Endangered Species Act caused an eight-hour delay. He said the U.S. Forest Service held up use of the aircraft from as early as 5:30 a.m. because dipping buckets of water from the Chewuch River could harm threatened fish species.

Forest Service radio logs, the only available record on when water drops were requested, show that about three hours went by before fire commanders called in the aircraft. It was only after those delays that a dispatcher held up use of the helicopter until permission to dip water from the river was obtained that took 48 minutes.

Commanders didn't call in aircraft until after noon on July 10, when the fire escaped control. One of the aircraft summoned after 1 p.m. was a water-bombing plane that had its tanks filled from the Omak Airport's water system, which is not a threat to fish runs.

Gary Starkovich, a 24-year fire commander with the Forest Service who now works as a private consultant, said after reviewing the radio logs that both requests came too late to make a difference.

"(The aircraft) should have been in there in the morning," he said.

The air tanker held 800 gallons and the helicopter carried a 75-gallon water bucket. Neither aircraft could dump enough water to stop an aggressive fire, Starkovich said.

McInnis said worries about threatened or endangered fish could have contributed to the deaths of Ellensburg's Tom Craven, 30, and three Yakima firefighters, Jessica Johnson, 19, Devin Weaver, 21, and Karen FitzPatrick, 18.

McInnis, chairman of the House Forest Subcommittee, initially cited confidential sources for the alleged delay in sending the helicopter.

McInnis' press secretary, Blain Rethmeier, later said the congressman leveled the accusations based on a timeline obtained from Fox News and confirmed by unnamed Forest Service officials.

Forest Service radio logs show that an elite crew of firefighting Hotshots from Entiat, Wash., asked at 2:15 a.m. that water-dropping aircraft be made available later in the morning. Another entry in the log, at 5:30 a.m., showed fire dispatchers confirming that one helicopter would be available. There was no request at that time to use the helicopter, however.

The logs show the first request for a helicopter to drop water on the growing fire came at 12:08 p.m. The water-bombing tanker got summoned an hour later.

Fire Management Officer Pete Soderquist said he told fire commanders Ellreese Daniels and Pete Kampen at a 9:04 a.m. briefing that the aircraft were available upon request. Kampen, a crew boss trainee working under Daniels, was in charge of firefighters on the line that morning. Daniels, who was with the 21-member crew, made the 12:08 p.m. request.

A spotter plane, required to run the air battle, took off shortly after Daniels' request and arrived an hour later.

There was confusion over the tanker's capability. Soderquist said in an interview with the Yakima Herald-Republic three weeks after the fatalities that he told Kampen and Daniels the tanker held 800 gallons of water or retardant. In a separate interview, Kampen said he believed the tanker would carry only 300 gallons of water, not enough to have much impact.

Soderquist and Kampen have refused to answer subsequent questions about the use of aircraft. Speaking through other Forest Service officials, Daniels, who was Kampen's boss at the fire, has refused to answer all questions about the fire.

The Forest Service told those involved in the Thirtymile Fire not to discuss helicopter use, said Mick Mueller, an agency spokesman.

Radio logs do confirm an Endangered Species Act delay in the use of the helicopter. At 1:12 p.m., after a spotter plane arrived to direct the air battle, a Forest Service dispatcher told firefighters the helicopter could not pull water from the Chewuch River without permission. Soderquist gave permission at 2 p.m.

The Forest Service later said that permission is not needed to pull water for fighting fire, even from waters containing threatened species of fish.

The agency wouldn't say why one of its employees thought differently.END

The 45 minute delay was part of the reason these 4 young people died but not the whole reason.

I had the e-mail after all.

This forst thread is a report from ABC/AP on how ESA didn't kill them. Yeah, right.
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3bafbc413866.htm

Petition on the ESA in relation to fire fighters.
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b9ce1e06b30.htm

Growing eco-body count: Geoff Metcalf burns over firefighters' needless death
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b6f64fb48dc.htm

Interior Secretary Norton responds to firefighters deaths
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b6e38e5619c.htm

Firefighters who were there tell the story of the deadly Thirty Mile blaze: 'It's snowing fire'
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b6d70a1101e.htm

Firefighters die so fish won't!
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b6991ec0561.htm

Endangered Fish Policy May Have Cost Firefighters' Lives
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b6823b633ba.htm

Sorry these aren't linked, you'll have to cut and paste.

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