Friday, July 5, 2013

Bad fire year made worse

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It’s a bad fire year, and on June 30 it got a lot worse when a fire burning out of control north of Phoenix swept through the little town of Yarnell, destroying 200 homes and killing 19 members of an elite hotshot fire-fighting crew.
    The young men deployed their emergency fire shelters, hoping the flames would pass quickly. Tragically, they didn’t.
    This crew had been working other fires in New Mexico and Arizona already this year. It had been a dry spring and it’s been a hot summer so far—and it’s far, far from over. U.S. wildfire disasters date back more than two centuries and include tragedies like the 1949 Mann Gulch fire near Helena, Mont., that killed 13, and the Rattlesnake blaze four years later that claimed 15 firefighters in Southern California. More fires, probably more large fires, are a given. Sadly, what is also a given is fewer firefighters.
    U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell has had to cut 500 firefighting positions because of cuts imposed by Congress. Tidwell says he hopes to “mitigate” the impact by stationing crews in vulnerable areas. But when fires break out all over the West and commonly burn more total acreage than the state of Maryland, how effective can that tactic be?
    Last year was the third most active fire season since the Forest Service began keeping records in 1960. The Forest Service spent $1.4 billion fighting those blazes. 2012 was also the warmest year on record. Unfortunately for the Forest Service, towns such as Prescott, Ariz., home of the lost crew, Yarnell, Ariz., which lies in the path of the fires, and New York City, N.Y., which is stretching its own fire-fighting resources so they can send crews to help out, 2013 is not only bringing record heat but budget cuts as well.
    It’s a highly flammable combination.
    Nothing can diminish the incredible bravery of the men and women who choose this difficult, dirty, dangerous work. Nothing can eliminate the significant risks of trying to slow or stop explosive flames running though abundant fuel at racetrack speeds. The very least we taxpayers should expect of ourselves is to pay the bills.
    Finally, there is no way to mitigate less spending than to accept less or different results. Fewer dollars mean less money for training, for replacements, for equipment and support personnel.
    Fewer dollars and fewer firefighters mean fires burn longer, destroy more public and private land, and threaten more lives.

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