Wash. — More than one-third of firefighters will try to avoid being assigned to wildland fires because of manslaughter charges filed against an incident commander, according to a survey.
Ellreese Daniels was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and seven counts of making false statements at the end of January.
It followed the Thirtymile fire in north-central Washington that claimed the lives of four U.S. Forest Service firefighters in July 2001.
A survey conducted by the International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) showed that 36 percent of the 3,362 full-time wildland firefighters polled will make themselves less available to be assigned to wildland fires as a direct result of the manslaughter charges.
"We conducted this survey to collect objective information about the impacts to wildland fire personnel and their organizations that are caused by the Thirtymile Fire legal proceedings," IAWF President Chuck Bushey said.
"We are providing this data to the land management agencies and other fire organizations so that they can determine if they need to mitigate any adverse impacts that may be identified."
The IAWF conducted the online survey between January 28 and February 15.
Of the full-time survey respondents surveyed, 6 percent said that because of the possibility of criminal charges they will no longer accept any fire assignments, and 23 percent said they will not serve as an incident commander.
In addition, 93 percent said that firefighters being charged with involuntary manslaughter due to incidents on a wildland fire was either "bad" or "very bad" for wildland fire.
Respondents added various comments in their online replies.
"Firefighting is a risky business, with decisions having to be made in what can be very dynamic situations," said one. "Do we charge structural fire captains with manslaughter when a firefighter falls in the line of duty?"
Another said, "This is precedent setting and could wreak havoc in getting anyone to take supervisory or command positions where human life is at risk for fear of being sued by attorneys who will have months to critique a split-second decision of someone under fire."
