The Oregonian
Copyright 2007 The Oregonian
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PORTLAND, Ore. — This is the off season for the nation’s wildland firefighters, yet from Oregon to Montana to New Mexico there is a palpable fear and anxiety among the men and women responsible for quelling Western forest fires.
Federal prosecutors have filed manslaughter and other criminal charges against a former fire commander, Ellreese Daniels, the fire boss in the 2001 Thirtymile fire in north-central Washington that claimed the lives of four firefighters.
The criminal charges signal a dramatic change in the way the U.S. government responds to deaths of wildland firefighters. Throughout history, investigations into wildland firefighter deaths have centered on only one goal: Learn from every tragic mistake so it is never repeated.
But the charges against Daniels, on the heels of the criminal prosecution of a commander in the 2003 Cramer fire in Idaho, in which two firefighters died, suggests that the government now intends to hold fire commanders personally and criminally liable for fatal misjudgments.
That’s a dangerous trend, because incident commanders around the West can now add jail time to the long list of things to fear the next time they are put in charge of a wildfire barreling across a dead, dry forest.
Mark Rey, the undersecretary of agriculture and the top White House official overseeing the Forest Service, fears that the prosecutions will drive experienced people away from top fire jobs and make those who do take them exceedingly cautious about tackling swift, aggressive fires, leading to more large, out of control blazes that sweep into communities.
Linda Goodman, chief of the Northwest region for the Forest Service, also fears that the prosecutions will deter fire commanders from speaking openly and honestly after accidents, preventing the agency from learning from its mistakes.
Meanwhile, fire commanders across the West are wondering aloud whether they ought to expose themselves and their families to the possibility of criminal charges. “A number of people are saying they won’t retain their fire qualifications, or take early retirement,” said Dick Mangan, past president of the International Association of Wildland Fire.
Federal prosecutors insist that criminal charges against Daniels are appropriate because he was grossly negligent in the Thirtymile fire, when he deployed crew members into a dead-end canyon, where they were overrun by flames. “But for his reckless disregard for their safety, they would not have died,” said Tom Rice, an assistant U.S. attorney in Spokane.
Yet where, exactly, is the line between bad judgment and criminal negligence? And how clear will that line be to incident commanders confronted with a fire streaking across an Oregon forest, with just a few minutes to make life-and-death decisions?
Rey, the White House official, points out that state and local firefighters and their supervisors generally are immune from criminal charges for their decisions in the line of duty. Rey says a law passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks meant to make it easier to prosecute those who harm federal officials has exposed fire bosses to prosecution. The White House now plans to support efforts in Congress to provide more legal protection to fire bosses.
For a century the federal government has fought wildfires, suffered tragedies, held its commanders accountable and learned from their awful mistakes without sending them to prison. That’s still the best way.