19 Prescott firefighters die in Yarnell Hill fire

[mad cow]

PRESCOTT - The Prescott Fire Department lost nearly its entire crew today - the Granite Mountain Hotshots - with 19 firefighters dying.

A Prescott Fire spokesman told The Daily Courier the crew was battling the Yarnell fire, which has resulted in evacuations as it has grown to an estimated 1,300 acres in size.

A report of eight injured firefighters earlier in the evening was unconfirmed.

The spokesman declined to release firefighters' identities.

Further information was unavailable.

Volunteers with the American Red Cross Grand Canyon Chapter opened a shelter on the Prescott campus of Yavapai College Sunday for displaced residents. Expecting large numbers, Red Cross Chapter Communications Officer Trudy Thompson-Rice said plans are already under way to open a second shelter closer to Yarnell.

Yavapai County Sheriff's Office Community Relations Specialist Anthony J. Palermo said structures were burning as of Sunday night, but could not confirm how many structures were burned.



http://www.prescottaz.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=120733

Tragedy in Arizona.

[Lucille]

Very sad. I've been to Yarnell, and have friends with a ranch not far from there, and it's moving in their direction. It's still zero percent contained.

http://www.kpho.com/story/22743096/yarnell-hill-fire-still-not-contained-c-130s-on-the-way


Wind gusts were expected to be stronger than those that fanned the fire into an inferno on Sunday, said Jim Wallman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

He said that while it's unlikely, gusts could possibly reach 80 mph Tuesday.
[...]
Even with all that help, full containment wasn't expected until about July 15, fire officials said.

Socialist Tragedy
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/140759.html


Now 19 more government fire fighters are dead. I wonder how private companies would do it? Far more safely, cheaply, and effectively, of that we can be sure.

[Lucille]

Fetishizing An Enormous F*ckup
http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2013/08/fetishizing-an-enormous-fckup.html


From the location of the Yarnell fire deaths:


"We are going to hallowed ground," says Jim Paxon, spokesman for the Arizona Forestry Division, moments before leading reporters and TV crews to the site where 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots were killed in a June 30 wildfire.

"They are almost superhuman," Paxon drawls to reporters gathered on the morning of July 23. "As we go up there, there's a Granite Mountain Hotshots shirt on a cactus. We would ask that you touch the shirt . . . in reverence to the loss."

Darrell Willis, the Granite Mountain Hotshots direct supervisor in the Prescott Fire Department said that their deaths were God's will


"The voice of what actually happened, we'll never know," Willis says. "We're not going to have that information from [the dead men]."

Willis continues, "It was just one of those things that happened. You can call it an accident. I just say that God had a different plan for that crew at this time."

I don't know how much this tragedy gets covered nowadays outside of Arizona, but it still dominates the news here. I have no problem sending all the sympathy in the world to the young families of these men. But I am exhausted with the fetishizing as heroic of what looks to be a total screw up. An experienced crew had absolutely no business being where they were, or in this day and age so badly out of communication. They either blundered into, or were incompetently led into (the facts are still coming out) an absurdly dangerous position. At best, they were there to protect a ranch house that had already been evacuated and was likely insured a lot better than the lives of many of the crew members.

From my observations operating for years in the US Forest Service and other wilderness areas, wildland firefighting needs a serious housecleaning. I thought for sure this tragedy would be a stick driven into that particular anthill, almost guaranteeing scrutiny and accountability might follow. Now I am not so sure.

[Lucille]

Apparently No Mistakes Were Made in Yarnell Fire
http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2013/09/apparently-no-mistakes-were-made-in-yarnell-fire.html


The official report is out, and apparently absolutely no mistakes were made by anyone leading to the deaths of 19 in the Yarnell Hill fires. Despite the fact that -- these 19 men were totally out of communication; and no one knew where they were; and they entered a ridiculously dangerous patch of ground; and they were not pursuing any coherent goal anyone can name -- no one made any mistakes and there is nothing here to learn from. Wow.

Here is my analysis of what is going on with this report: Substantial mistakes were made by both the fire team and by their leaders. Their leaders wrote the report, and certainly were not going to incriminate themselves, particularly given that they likely face years of litigation. They could have perhaps outlined the mistakes the team made, but the families and supporters of the dead men would have raised a howl if the dead firefighters were blamed for mistakes while the leadership let themselves off the hook, and surely would have pushed back on the culpability of the firefighting effort's management.

So this report represents an implicit deal being offered to the families -- we will let your dead rest in peace by not highlighting the mistakes they made if you will lay off of us and the mistakes we made. We will just blame it on God (I kid you not, see Prescott chief's statements here). Most Arizonans I know seem willing to have these folks die as heroes who succumbed to the inherent risks of the profession, rather than stupid errors, so we may never have an honest assessment of what happened. And yet again the opportunity to do a major housecleaning of wildland firefighting is missed.

[Lucille]

They did whitewash it. See above.

Mother of Fallen Yarnell Hill Firefighter Files Claim Seeking $36 Million
http://news.yahoo.com/mother-fallen-yarnell-hill-firefighter-files-claim-seeking-233649602--abc-news-topstories.html


The mother of firefighter who died while battling the Yarnell Hill blaze on June 30, intends to sue state and local authorities for negligence and attempting to "whitewash" an investigation into the deaths of the crew.

Marcia McKee filed a notice of claim on Friday against the state of Arizona, City of Prescott and Yavapai County seeking $12 million from each for negligent and careless actions that led to the death of her son, Grant, who was 21 when he perished alongside 18 members of his Granite Mountain Hotshots crew.
[...]
McKee, who lives in Newport Beach, Calif., says in the notice that her son's death was "preventable," but that authorities violated all 10 of the mandatory Standard Firefighting Orders, designed to avoid firefighter injuries and deaths. She accused 13 individuals and entities named in the claim of failing to provide adequate equipment or maintain consistent or proper communications with the crew.

The claim also says the "Yarnell Hill Fire Report," which summarized conclusions of a three-month investigation into the firefighters' deaths, was "a blame-avoiding, muddled, and untrustworthy cover-up."

"As far as constructing a logical, accurate sequence of events, the Yarnell Hill Fire Report is almost useless," the claim says.

The roughly 120-page report commissioned by the Arizona State Forestry Division detailed the exact conditions that fueled the fire, which included erratic and gusting winds, triple-digit temperatures and extreme drought.

It also detailed that some radios were not equipped with appropraite tone guards, "radio traffic was heavy" and there was a 30-minute gap in communications shortly before a raging inferno overwhelmed the men.
[...]
McKee is the first person among any of the crew's surviving family members to make a claim of any type, although others have previously voiced their anger and dissatisfaction with the fire investigation, which was conducted by a task force composed of 12 local and national inter-agency fire experts, led by Florida Forester Jim Karels.

The day the report was released, Sept. 28, the father of fallen fireman Travis Turbyfill, 27, said the crew were not given adequate protection gear and that the report failed to include future recommendations for fire shelter technology development.

"There isn't a football player that goes on the field without pads and a helmet," David Turbyfill said. "You don't send a structural fire department guy into a fire without the proper protection gear."

McKee's lawyer, Craig Knapp of Knapp & Roberts, said he is aware of other families wanting more information but had not been officially retained by any. He also said none of the 13 entities served had responded yet to the notice.
[...]
McKee said she is willing to settle outside court for $12 million, if the matter can be resolved in 60 days.