By Isabella Breda
The Seattle Times
SEATTLE — New details are emerging about the events leading to the arrests of two firefighters by federal officers last month at a wildfire on the Olympic Peninsula.
In an interview with The Seattle Times, Tom Clemo, who was the leader of the fire response at the time of the arrests, said they stemmed from an investigation of alleged time-card fraud by private crews working the fire.
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Clemo and seven other people interviewed for this story who had direct knowledge of the incident, as well as information garnered from videos, photos and a virtual meeting invite for a debrief on the action, shed light on what preceded the arrests, and those who were involved.
Clemo has sought to distance himself and his team from the arrests.
“My primary concern is the safety of firefighters,” he said last week, “not immigration status.”
The Aug. 27 incident on the Bear Gulch fire reverberated around the country as President Donald Trump’s administration ramps up immigration enforcement actions. Fifty members of Congress demanded answers about the arrests.
The firefighters are being detained at the Northwest Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center in Tacoma.
Clemo said his team’s finance staff discovered the alleged discrepancies between hours worked and hours submitted among several contract crews. His team reported them to the federal law enforcement officer assigned to the team, Clemo said. The officer’s position is to manage security on large fire responses.
A Department of the Interior spokesperson said on Monday the security manager on the fire at the time was a “uniformed ranger” with the Bureau of Land Management.
The spokesperson said fire response leadership asked the security manager to look into “potentially significant time-card fraud” on the part of two contract fire crews.
The agency said the BLM ranger found the two crews “had individuals working under visas,” and asked U.S. Border Patrol to verify visas.
Incident management teams are often made up of federal, state and local fire officials who have signed up to lead fire responses outside their day jobs, dispatching to fires across a region or the country.
When asked how the time-card investigation was related to the immigration-related arrests, Clemo said it was all in the hands of federal law enforcement.
The arrests did not follow a Biden-era Department of Homeland Security policy, which limits immigration enforcement where disaster and emergency response and relief is being provided. Under the first Trump administration, a similar policy was in place during the Northern California wildfires.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment about its policy of enforcing immigration law at locations where disaster and emergency response is being provided.
The fire crews
Private fire crews play a critical role in the nation’s wildfire response.
The two contract crews that were questioned were Arden Solutions and Table Rock. They are 20-person crews.
The U.S. Forest Service has awarded agreements with more than 800 Type 2 private hand crews, like Table Rock, in 2025. These firefighters dig fire lines, clear brush and snuff out hot spots.
There are roughly 40 national Type 2 Initial Attack crews, like Arden Solutions, under contract with the Forest Service. They are considered to be the elite firefighters of the private industry, and can be called upon when a fire breaks out to be the first layer of defense, said Debbie Miley, executive director of the National Wildfire Suppression Association.
The DHS claimed the two men arrested were not firefighters. Wildfire veterans have emphatically rejected the notion, with some noting that anyone dispatched to an active fire needs to have an Incident Qualification Card, commonly referred to as a red card, which certifies the person can complete firefighting duties.
About 75% of hand crew companies are based in the Pacific Northwest, according to the executive director of the National Wildfire Suppression Association, which represents 365 member companies in 29 states. The private industry also provides other resources, including medical units, heavy equipment, tree fallers, water handling and specialty equipment.
The industry relies on a strong immigrant workforce, firefighters say. In Oregon, forestry companies requested more than 3,000 H-2B visas for temporary foreign workers this fiscal year. Not all forestry companies fight wildfires, though some have transitioned to do so during the fire season.
These crews typically document their hours worked on paper sheets called a “Crew Time Report,” get them signed off by their division or task force leader and submit them to the finance section of the fire’s incident command every day. The finance team typically flags any issues or discrepancies for the team to correct.
Before leaving any fire, the finance team will review time cards for firefighters and make sure everything looks accurate — including identifying information, hours and equipment.
Time-card investigation
In a morning briefing days before the arrests, Scot Roeber, who was supervising one area of the fire, said he encouraged firefighters, which included Arden Solutions, to complete their time cards to reflect the terms in their contracts.
That’s not an uncommon request on fires. He said Arden was not singled out.
Arden updated their time cards that morning, according to a firefighter who requested not to be named for fear of retaliation.
Firefighters and other fire personnel say such discrepancies pop up, and they are almost always corrected on-site.
Clemo, the incident commander, said the crews as a whole, not individual firefighters, were being investigated.
Clemo said he requested the questioning related to time-card fraud allegations not be done at fire camp due to safety concerns, and law enforcement obliged.
He said he was told the firefighters would be questioned about the allegations at the remote location where federal agents met the crews. He said there was no mention of immigration enforcement.
Day of the arrests
The crews got to their assigned firefighting location for the day around 8:30 a.m. An hour later, federal officers pulled up.
Table Rock Crew Boss David Diaz said upon arriving federal officers stated the reason they were brought there was because of allegations of time-card fraud.
Diaz said a BLM officer told crew leaders that the officer had been watching the firefighters since they got on the fire, taking timestamps for their meal breaks, showers and time sleeping, and that he was reporting it to the finance team.
Federal law enforcement then lined up firefighters to check their IDs.
Some firefighters who were cleared after their IDs were checked stayed in line in solidarity with those who were waiting. They said law enforcement threatened to arrest those who wouldn’t get back in their trucks.
“You can either cooperate with us or we throw you in handcuffs and put you in the back of the vehicle,” an officer appears to say to firefighters in a video shared with The Seattle Times.
Clemo said it was only after the incident that he found out Border Patrol was there and the arrests had happened.
“I was lied to,” Diaz said. “I brought the crew out there to do an assignment that never happened.”
Before leaving the fire, Diaz said he was escorted by two officers to finance and his team’s time cards were corrected and resubmitted.
Crew members over several days had logged an extra half hour for the time they were waiting for their bosses to finish up getting a morning briefing. Crew members often use that time to prepare lunches and gear before they head out. Diaz said only crew bosses can log time for the morning briefing.
Debrief
In a meeting later that day, held in person and on a video call, a BLM officer gave a synopsis of the operation, according to several attendees interviewed by The Seattle Times.
There was no elaboration, attendees say, on whether those engaged in the alleged fraud were found or if the time cards were corrected.
The officer said he and other law enforcement intentionally took firefighters to a remote location for officer “safety,” according to meeting attendees.
He said the operation needed Border Patrol agents to confirm work status, according to attendees. He said that operation resulted in two people being detained by Border Patrol.
According to one attendee, the officer’s report was upbeat until others in the meeting shared that a Seattle Times reporter had photos of the arrests.
Both of the private crews have active agreements with the Forest Service and have been assigned to new fires.
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