Intent was to burn undergrowth and reduce fires’ fuel
By Dennis Wagner
USA Today
Copyright 2007 Gannett Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
PHOENIX — Three veterans of fighting wildfires in the West say they set scores of unauthorized blazes on public lands during their decades of service.
Their revelations come as retired Forest Service commander Van Bateman awaits sentencing June 4 after he pleaded guilty to setting timber on fire without authorization. The Federal Emergency Management Agency singled out Bateman as a hero for his work in New York City after the 9/11 attacks.
Under the terms of his plea agreement, Bateman’s sentence could range from probation to two years in prison.
Firefighters sometimes set fires to burn out undergrowth in overgrown forest areas. The intent is to reduce the amount of fuel for fires. Bateman and his fellow firefighters admitted they sometimes bypassed required procedures.
“I would be shocked if there’s anybody who’s spent their career in forest management who hasn’t done this,” Bateman said. “I was doing my job.”
The three wildfire veterans, all of whom are friends and former colleagues of Bateman, concurred.
Charlie Denton, a 43-year employee of the Forest Service who retired in 2000 as fire operations chief for Arizona and New Mexico, said he set dozens of fires without approval.
“It was with the intent of doing something good,” he said. “I bet I could get a list of 200 people” who did the same.
Larry Humphrey, who retired in 2004 as a fire management supervisor and Type 1 incident commander with the Bureau of Land Management, said it is common to set small blazes and avoid paperwork and procedures required for prescribed burns. “If you had to bend the rules a little, you bent the rules,” he said. A Type 1 incident commander is responsible for the largest fires and national catastrophes. There are 14 such commanders in the nation.
Jim Paxon, who spent 34 years in the Forest Service before retiring in 2003 and who works as a television news consultant, said, “I’ve done exactly that. I can’t tell you how many times.”
Bateman, a former Type 1 incident commander with the Forest Service, was sent with his command team to New York City immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. His flight to New York, which had a military escort, was one of the few in the sky Sept. 12.
The Fire Department of New York assigned him to be planning coordinator for operations at the World Trade Center, a post he held for the next 35 days.
In 2004, according to court records, Forest Service investigators began to suspect he was lighting fires, as well as putting them out. According to those records, a tracking device was placed on his vehicle, and the vehicle was traced to the ignition point for a blaze in Arizona’s Coconino National Forest.
Bateman denied responsibility until agents from the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Agriculture presented evidence of his involvement.
According to a signed statement, Bateman then told investigators, “The line between a good fireman and an arsonist is a fine line. I did not do this for profit or gain. I have no idea why I started these fires.”
Asked in an interview to explain that statement, Bateman said that although there are many times he sees a forest area that “needs fire,” he does not always act on it.
He said his statement meant that he didn’t know why he started those particular fires but didn’t start other fires.
Joe Walsh, a Forest Service spokesman in Washington, would not comment on Bateman’s prosecution but said the agency “does not condone any actions of our Forest Service employees that are contrary to law, regulation and standing policy governing prescribed burns.”
In Arizona, Mindee Roth, administrator for the Mogollon Rim Ranger District, said she is not aware of supervisors igniting the woods without approval. “That’s highly unusual,” Roth said. “Those guys are all retired now, and things have changed. That’s not appropriate in this day and age.”
Bateman said he lit the fires when conditions were safe and noted that they burned only 21 1/2 acres. He described his conduct as a policy breach that did not merit criminal charges.
Kimberly Hare, the federal prosecutor in the case, said Bateman did not make those arguments when he was interrogated by federal agents. She said he fled the blazes during peak wildfire season.
“Anyone who sets a wildfire and leaves it unattended is committing what I think is a criminal action,” Hare said. “It’s dangerous. It’s reckless.”