Second AZ firefighters’ death probe more revealing
By Cally Carswell, High Country News
As we reported in October, the first investigation of Arizona’s Yarnell Hill Fire, in which 19 hotshots were killed this summer, drew extremely cautious conclusions. No “direct causes” of the accident were identified, no one was blamed.
Policies and protocols, the report said, were not violated. It was almost strangely timid, leaving some to wonder: How could 19 young men have lost their lives if so few mistakes were made?
That report was commissioned by the Arizona State Forestry Division, the agency that oversaw the firefighting effort on Yarnell Hill. Now, a separate investigation, this one from the Arizona Division of Occupational Health and Safety, has been completed — and it reached much more damning conclusions. The Associated Press calls it a “stinging rebuke” of the first investigation.
Worst of all, it bluntly concluded that protection of “non-defensible structures” — houses that didn’t have adequate clearings around them to allow firefighters to safely fight encroaching flames — was prioritized above firefighter safety.
Firefighters should have been told to stand down before the storm arrived that blew the fire up, lead investigator Marshall Krotenberg told the Arizona Industrial Commission, which administers and enforces worker safety laws.
Thank you, Kae, not only for this story, but for running an article from High Country News. I’ve subscribed to High Country News for years; it is, without any doubt, the premier publication for covering issues unique to the West, our mountains and terrains.
Among my fire fighter friends, there’s lots of criticism regarding the tactics and management that led to this extremely sad loss of – well let’s face it – public safety employees who are repeatedly slammed on this forum, as well as generally, by the plutocrats whom the wannabes and wish-I-weres protect, for being overpaid and not contributing to their economy and bank accounts.
Short term: subscribe to High County News and support Lake Tahoe News. Long term: consider the possibility that you might be supporting a politics of greed, and you’ll never be one of the folks who can actually benefit from it. Tragic deaths occur among the public safety employees on the front line. The surviving professionals, your employees, learn from it; so should we.
As I have said ever since this incident was first reported, I would like to see 19 law suits filed for wrongful death.
If the government refuses to be sued then sue your congressman for failing to give proper oversight to the responsible agencies.
I think a minimum judgement of 10 million each would send a message that will not be ignored.
In this age of instant communication there can be no excuse for anything like this ever happening in the first place.
When we find out who the responsible parties are we must, at the very minimum, make certain that they receive a dishonorable discharge from government service.