Agency Blamed in Fatal Fire

The Forest Service willfully disregarded employee safety at a wildfire last summer in which four firefighters were killed, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Friday.

OSHA said the Forest Service did not provide a place of employment that was “free of recognized hazards that could cause serious harm or death.”

It noted, as the Forest Service had in its own investigation, that fire managers violated 10 basic firefighting safety rules and ignored or disregarded 10 of the 18 warning signs for danger.

OSHA also found that the Forest Service failed to follow its own guidelines for work and rest, that there were questions about who was in charge at different times during the fire and that there were inadequate plans for deploying emergency fire shelters when the firefighters couldn’t escape the flames.

The 30-Mile Fire, started by an abandoned campfire, blew up July 10, going from 25 acres to 2,500 acres in less than three hours. Fourteen Forest Service firefighters and two campers were trapped by the inferno in the narrow Chewuch River canyon in Washington state’s Okanogan National Forest.

Tom Craven, 30, of Ellensburg, and Devin Weaver, 21, Jessica Johnson, 19, and Karen FitzPatrick, 18, all of Yakima, died after breathing superheated air in their emergency fire shelters on a rock slope.

A fifth firefighter, Jason Emhoff, also of Yakima, was seriously burned after he ran to a van.

OSHA, which has no penalty or enforcement authority over federal agencies, also said there were insufficient job performance standards and evaluations for Forest Service supervisors and managers.

“I was delighted to see OSHA did a more candid job of reporting the level of negligence,” said Ken Weaver, Devin’s father. “The Forest Service report tended to soft-sell the negligence of the decisions of the supervisors.”

Richard Terrill, OSHA’s regional administrator in Seattle, said his agency was working with the Forest Service to correct any problems before the next fire season.

“Wildland firefighting will always have its dangers,” Terrill said, “but Forest Service officials have expressed their willingness to implement improvements that can reduce the risks.”

Last fall, the Forest Service said the deaths could have been prevented had the safety rules been followed. For instance, more effort should have been made to identify escape routes or safety zones, and to assess weather forecasts.

The Forest Service report also said fire safety equipment was improperly used, contributing to injuries, and recommended procedural changes to make firefighting safer.

“I’ve directed my employees to focus on preventing a tragedy like this from happening again,” Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth said Friday.

So far, the Forest Service has completed 11 of 31 proposed changes based on its investigation. Some of those changes include finding ways to increase firefighters’ awareness of fire behavior, improve leadership and better manage fatigue.

Bosworth said the agency is also investigating the job performances of the people who were responsible for managing the fire and its crews.

“Those who need to be held accountable will be,” Bosworth said.

Weaver said he believes accountability is the only way the Forest Service will ever effect real change in firefighting safety.

“Unless there is accountability for the decisions being made on the fire line, for the people telling these kids, ‘Go down this road,’ ‘Go fight this fire,’ unless there is accountability, we’re going to get bad decisions,” he said.