A professor at Loyola University New Orleans has written a ridiculous article published by Psychology Today that uses the tragic Thirtymile fire that killed four wildland firefighters in 2001 as evidence that women should not be firefighters and that the concept of national forests is evil and an example of “socialized land ownership”.
The Thirtymile fire, even before this idiot from Loyola spewed forth this garbage, can provoke a very emotional response from wildland firefigters. Not only did we lose four firefighters (see the names below which include two women), but for the first time a wildland firefighter was charged with felonies for the deaths of people on his crew.
The Cantwell-Hastings law that passed in 2002 was a knee-jerk reaction to these deaths. It requires that every fatality of a U.S. Forest Service employee on a fire be investigated by the Department of Agriculture’s Inspector General’s office, a group of people more comfortable investigating fraud of subsidies at chicken ranches than analyzing wildland fire behavior, tactics, and strategy. Their mission is to determine if anyone should be charged with a crime, not to help identify lessons learned or prevent future fatalities.
Ellreese Daniels, the crew boss of those four firefighters, had been initially charged with 11 felonies, including four counts of manslaughter. The charges were reduced to two counts of making false statements to which Mr. Daniels pleaded guilty on August 20, 2008. He was sentenced to three years of probation and 90 days of work release.
So the idiot Loyola prof digs into these wounds which still seem fresh to firefighters and says women have no place on the fireline:
Nowadays, with our modern dispensations, we place females in the front lines. This is no less than an abomination. Females are far more precious than males. It is not for nothing that farmers keep a few bulls and hundreds of cows. It is due to patriarchy that we owe our very existence as a species. Imagine if our cave men ancestors had sent their women out to hunt and face the lions and tigers when they came a-calling, instead of throwing themselves at these enemies, sacrificing themselves so that mankind could persist.
Spoken like a cave man.
He goes on to say that fewer firefighters would die if we had no public ownership of lands:
When a forest fire consumes private timber, there are individuals who feel it in their bank accounts; this is not the case with socialized land holdings. This means that the incentives are greater, by how much is an empirical matter, for profit making individuals to take greater precautions regarding their property than is true for their public counterparts. If we have learned anything from the fall of the Soviet economic system – and this is a highly debatable point – it is that things work better under private ownership. These four young people will have not died totally in vain if we use their deaths as a rallying cry for privatization of the forest. Perhaps if we succeed in this effort, other lives will be saved.
The four firefighters killed on the Thirtymile fire were:
Tom L. Craven, 30, Ellensburg, WA;
Karen L. Fitzpatrick, 18, Yakima, WA;
Devin A. Weaver, 21, Yakima, WA;
Jessica L. Johnson, 19, Yakima, WA.
A memorial page for the firefighters can be found here. May they rest in peace.
I have a PhD, and have been teaching at a land-grant university for 30+ years. I really am p****d off at this turkey. I read the blog and it smacks more of a diatribe then a reasoned, scientific article. I have had women firefighters working for me in my local department and every darn one of them was wonderful, wanted to be there and pulled their own weight and then some! I wonder if Prof. Block will request only males show up at his home for an emergency!
Not sure this needs to be said but here it goes. Just because someone has a formal education does not mean that they know anything. Obviously that was the case here where someone has an education and title so they write an article and display how little he knows!
What a Bill Ayres type motherfucker.
Loser…
I think we all can agree that the PHD behind this article is an idiot. Regardless of the land ownership fire fighters will still put their lives on the line to protect lives and property of those owners who are adjacent to an active wildfire. Yes. privatization will hurt the owners pocket book for a fire, but this will turn into closure of all forest lands to recreation.
This self righteous idiot dishonors their memory as well as the other that have died over the years. I have worked with many women firefighters both wildland and structure, and have nothing but respect for them as they work harder to prove to others they belong there. Let’s see how fast he could chop 4 chains of hot line in 95 degree weather.
Having written a book on the Thirtymile Fire I can say that the two female firefighters who died on the fire wanted to be there — not in a fatal situation, to be sure, but there, fighting wildland fire alongside the guys. Both were exceptional individuals in terms of physical strength and personal character; I bet either one of them could have dropped the Loyola prof with a single punch.
I’d like to join Zach’s pertinent remark above about Esperanza, about which I’m presently writing a book, with the added note that the five who died were Forest Service firefighters. That’s how things work in the ever-expanding wildland urban interface — you take risks for private property even if you wear a “public” uniform.
You’ve gotta be kidding….how about the five firefighters who died trying to protect the vacant privately owned house on the Esperanza fire??
What kind of drugs has this PHD been smoking? His lack of common sense is only exceeded by his lack of knowledge about firefighting and womens rights and our many fine woman firefighters.