By Jon Ortiz
The Sacramento Bee
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — For nearly a dozen years, top officials at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection knowingly withheld death benefits from the families of 14 contracted firefighter pilots killed in the line of duty, according to a claim that seeks more than $4 million plus interest for the survivors.
Since 2002, the claim filed late Friday alleges, “high level executives of Cal Fire, including the current director of Cal Fire, the current deputy director of Cal Fire (and their predecessors) ... engaged in a pattern of deceit and deception specifically designed to hide the existence of (the benefit) from the survivors and dissuade them from seeking any such death benefit from Cal Fire.”
Cal Fire spokeswoman Janet Upton said in an email Sunday that the department has not yet formally received the claim, but “has been working on benefits” for survivors of Geoffrey Hunt, a contracted pilot killed last October. The department also has “been reviewing records to ensure that past Cal Fire contracted pilots have also received them,” Upton said.
Full story: Pilots’ families say Cal Fire owes them death benefits