Firefighters’ families pressing for changes

YAKIMA – Karen FitzPatrick’s favorite Bible verses still compete for space on her bedroom wall with inspirational quotations and photographs – the compulsory pose with her prom date, goofy snapshots with family and friends.

But under the mock green street sign that reads “Karen Street,” a neatly folded flag and a firefighter’s boots and helmet serve as a reminder of the Thirtymile fire that raged through a remote canyon in Washington’s Okanogan National Forest five years ago Monday, killing the 18-year-old and three other firefighters who were trapped on a dusty dead-end road.

A Forest Service investigation found that fire bosses had broken all 10 of the agency’s standard safety rules and ignored numerous signs of danger on the fire line that day, July 10, 2001. It wasn’t the first time such rules had been broken and it wasn’t the last – two more firefighters died in similar circumstances in the Cramer fire in remote Idaho in 2003.

In the years since the Thirtymile fire, family members of the victims have repeatedly demanded policy changes at the Forest Service, from increasing training to removing the shroud of secrecy over disciplinary actions.

“The Forest Service is the Wild West. They are not accountable for anything,” said Kathie FitzPatrick, Karen’s mother, as she stood in the bedroom where the calendar hasn’t moved from July 2001. “They can do anything they want. They have immunity.”

The Forest Service developed its safety rules and a list of danger watch signs after 28 firefighters died on wildfires in Montana and Southern California in the late 1940s and 1950s. Yet in 1994, 14 more firefighters died on Colorado’s Storm King Mountain after eight of 10 safety rules and several watch signs were broken, ignored or unrecognized.

A 2004 analysis by the Agriculture Department’s inspector general determined that similar fire orders were violated at the Thirtymile and Cramer fires. No assigned lookouts. No escape routes or safety zones identified. No spot weather forecasts.

“Don’t ever call it an accident. It’s not an accident,” said Ken Weaver, whose 21-year-old son, Devin, died in the Thirtymile fire. “We broke our own rules.”

In addition to FitzPatrick and Weaver, both rookies, Jessica Johnson, 19, and Tom Craven, 30, died in the blaze.

The four died in their emergency fire shelters when they were trapped by an inferno with 10 other firefighters and two campers in the Chewuch River canyon in the Okanogan National Forest. According to the Forest Service investigation, fire bosses ignored numerous signs of danger, repeatedly underestimated the fire and allowed their only escape route from the dead-end canyon to be cut off.

Bitter about the agency’s investigation of itself after Thirtymile, which initially blamed the victims, family members pushed Congress to mandate an independent investigation whenever a Forest Service firefighter dies in an entrapment or burnover.

Under the new law, an incident commander served 18 months probation and lost his Forest Service job after two firefighters died in the Cramer fire in Idaho in July 2003.

After Thirtymile, the Forest Service announced that nine employees and fire commanders were reassigned from active duty; others quit or retired.

Rep. Doc Hastings, a Republican whose district includes the dead firefighters’ homes as well as the fire site, helped push for the law requiring an outside investigation of wildfire fatalities.

At the same time, he said, every effort should be made to ensure firefighters receive adequate training – not just in how to fight fires, but also how to react in stressful situations.

“If everything is followed from that standpoint, you should never be in a situation where you’re overrun by a fire,” he said.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has been pushing a measure that would require federal firefighting agencies, including the Forest Service, to track money spent on firefighter safety training programs. The agencies also would have to monitor private firefighting crews to ensure they’re qualified.

The Thirtymile fire was especially frustrating, she said, because it raised the same issues as Storm King.

“It was like reading the same report again,” Cantwell said. “Bringing the light to the fact that they’re missing the boat on some of these issues – forcing them to tell us how much money they’re spending on training, getting the same standards for contractors – is important.”

But the Forest Service opposes her bill. In testimony before Congress in May, Deputy Chief Joel Holtrop said training, experience and job performance are difficult to track as a budget line item.

“Safety is a core value to the Forest Service. It’s the most important thing to our operation,” said spokeswoman Rose Davis of the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, noting that the agency has worked to improve training and safety.

“But more important, we’re focused on human performance, because it’s the humans who have to make the decisions, change their tactics and provide leadership to other firefighters.”

William Craven, whose son Tom died in the Thirtymile fire, agrees. The Craven family still has three sons fighting fires for the Forest Service.

“You’re always going to make some decision. Sometimes it’s right, sometimes it’s wrong. It’s not going to bring the kids back,” he said.

Blatantly breaking safety rules amounts to criminal negligence, said Ken Weaver and his wife, Barbara. They argue the Forest Service should be doling out fines or suspensions or removing people from their jobs entirely.

“You don’t need more rules. You just need to follow the ones you’ve got,” Ken Weaver said.

Firefighter Ted Craven, Tom’s younger brother, has seen changes. He watched from an adjacent hillside as the Thirtymile fire blew up, unaware that his brother had been trapped.

“Everything’s more cautious these days,” he said. “It used to be full charge. Now we sit back and assess how we’re going to attack it. It’s a lot safer.”