Forest Service takes heat from lawmakers for wildfire deaths

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers pounced on the U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday for failing to implement safety standards that could have saved four firefighters who died in a July blaze.

The standards were recommended six years ago after an even deadlier fire.

At a hearing of the Senate public lands and forests subcommittee, lawmakers promised to press the agency to ensure the deaths at the Thirty-mile fire in Washington’s north-central Cascades lead to change.

Tom Craven, Jessica Johnson, Karen FitzPatrick and Devin Weaver died after they were trapped by flames.

Since the fire, an internal agency report concluded that all the basic firefighting safety rules were broken or disregarded.

Ken Weaver of Yakima blamed the government for his 21-year-old son’s death. He said leaders at the fire abandoned common sense and safety rules when they found them to be inconvenient.

"I remember the pain and the sheer defeat that cut through me when I saw my son’s name on that death certificate," Weaver said through tears.

"We don’t need more safety rules," he said. "We need more enforcement."

The rules and recommendations in question aren’t new.

An independent review team in 1995 offered 86 goals for the fire program after the 1994 Storm King Mountain fire killed 14 firefighters in Colorado.

Nine of those recommendations are found in the Thirty-mile fire investigative report, including improvements in leader training, fire danger information and firefighter preparedness training.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said the agency has promised reform in the past — and failed.

"It appears these recommendations are being recycled," Cantwell said. "These ideas aren’t new. They simply haven’t been implemented."

Cantwell grilled Forest Service chief Dale Bosworth on why the safety standards required of other federal operations — such as the Hanford nuclear reservation or the Federal Aviation Administration — aren’t found at his agency. She questioned whether training was adequate, whether managers were accountable and whether the agency needed some external review.

Bosworth said ultimately he is responsible for the deaths, but said the agency can learn from the tragedy.

A plan is being put in place that calls for, among other changes, improvements in accountability and job training. The agency is also considering administrative action against some of those involved.

"Firefighting is dangerous," Bosworth said. "That means we have to do everything we can to protect the lives of firefighters."

Weaver and others have said an agency culture of "machismo" makes managers all too willing to go after fires and put people in harm’s way.

Phil Schaenman, president of Tri Data Inc., which put together the recommendations after Storm King, said changes may be a long way off.

"It takes years to change a culture. It takes lots of action," Schaenman testified.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the forests panel, said the agency is just continuing business as usual, and speaking in bureaucratic lingo when it promises action on "situational awareness, assessment, fatigue management" and other progress.

He asked for briefings every 60 days on what the agency is doing to implement its plan. Bosworth agreed.

"I won’t be comfortable until we get a whole new approach toward safety," a somber Bosworth said before leaving the hearing room.