(UPDATE at 12:20 p.m. MDT, August 1, 2013)
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said Wednesday that Arizona State Forestry Division Deputy Director Jerry Payne actually did make the statements about the cause of the fatalities that John Dougherty, of Investigative Media, reported. She said this, in spite of the vigorous denials made earlier by Payne and the department’s spokesman, Jim Paxon. Investigative Media has more details on these developments.
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The Arizona State Forestry Division has issued an apology for “unauthorized opinions made by Deputy State Forester Jerry Payne regarding the Yarnell Hill Fire fatalities”.
All but one of the 20 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshot crew were overrun by the Yarnell Hill Fire and killed on June 30 just north of Yarnell, Arizona.
At 5 p.m. Tuesday the state agency issued a news release after receiving numerous inquiries about statements attributed to Mr. Payne in an article written by John Dougherty of Investigative Media. The Deputy State Forester was quoted as listing a number of mistakes that he said the superintendent of the Granite Mountain Hotshots made on the fire, including, according to the article, violating…
… several basic wildfire rules including not knowing the location of the fire, not having a spotter observing the fire and leading his crew through thick, unburned vegetation near a wildfire.
The news release issued Tuesday by the Office of the State Forester after Mr. Dougherty’s article was published, said in part:
State Forester Scott Hunt wants to make it clear that State Forestry has taken no position on the causes of the fatalities and awaits the results of the two independent investigations that are currently being conducted by the Serious Accident Investigation Team and Arizona Department of Occupational Safety and Health.
State Forestry apologizes for Mr. Payne’s inappropriate expression of opinion as fact and unfounded speculation that prejudges the ultimate conclusion of the investigation.
Wildfire Today originally wrote about Mr. Payne’s opinions in an article earlier on Tuesday.
Our Analysis
The State Forester did the right thing by putting out an unequivocal apology right away — a smart move that will make this a one- or two-day story, rather than letting it fester for weeks or months. The publicity the apology generates may discourage others from jumping the gun, making half-assed proclamations about who was right and who was wrong before we actually know what occurred on the Yarnell Hill Fire.
With the few facts that are known at this stage about what happened on the fire, what the firefighters knew, and who made which decisions, anyone (including state or local officials or people who leave comments on Wildfire Today), is very premature in pointing fingers and casting blame — or, for that matter, saying no one is to blame. Making assumptions is irresponsible, and is not fair to the 19 deceased firefighters or those who eventually hope to benefit from lessons learned after the facts are known.
This “Incident within an Incident” should be used in future ICS training classes as a classic example of why Agencies and IMTs should used qualified PIO’s to talk with the media: not because you want to cover up the truth, but rather you want to keep from confusing the facts with unfounded opinions and half-truths. Mr. Payne and Mr. Paxton are well-intentioned but not helping by making premature statements in advance of the official Investigation Report. “Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than opening it and removing all doubts.”
Right Emmett. And when the Governor has to get involved to clear up the false information that was distributed earlier by the official spokesperson, you know you have a problem.
The federal agencies and some of the state agencies learned their lessons the hard way decades ago about how to deal with the aftermath of wildland firefighter fatalities. Apparently any lessons learned from the deaths of six inmate firefighters on the Dude Fire in Arizona 23 years ago about how to interact with the media have been forgotten.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said Wednesday that Arizona State Forestry Division Deputy Director Jerry Payne actually did make the statements about the cause of the fatalities that John Dougherty, of Investigative Media, reported. She said this, in spite of the vigorous denials made earlier by Payne and the department’s spokesman, Jim Paxon. Investigative Media has more details on these developments.
Amen!
Thanks Bill, for your analysis. Agree completely, it is past time for folks to stop commenting publicly before the investigations are complete
While I don’t credit any Arizona news media source at this point…one news article has the Arizona State Forestry Division saying that the original article was a fabrication, based loosely on Payne’s casual comments that the author turned into an “official” accusation of a break in protocol. We are so quick to jump to the end looking for answers or looking for someone to blame. We need to let the investigators do their job before jumping to conclusions.
http://www.azfamily.com/news/Yarnell-Fatal-Fire-Report-Sparks-Backlash-217678601.html
AJ, Tuesday morning shortly after the article was published the State was saying that Payne was misquoted, but they issued a statement late in the afternoon apologizing for Payne’s “unauthorized” remarks, but did not dismiss the accuracy of his remarks.
Bill, at this point I’m pretty much rejecting anything that Payne *or* Dougherty are saying – as *both* of these individuals are speaking without the benefit of facts behind their statements – and, thus, are *highly* out of place in their remarks. Whether Payne was quoted accurately or not is irrelevant – he is _not_ the spokesman for the Investigation – and, considering the actions these two individuals have taken has destroyed their credibility in my view. I cannot imagine how much additional pain this has brought to the entire Hotshot family – Prescott or elsewhere. It just needs to die quickly and we all need to sit down and *patiently* wait for the official report to be released. Anything or any commentary between this hour and that point in time is nothing but a waste.
— john.
Mr. Cato, I disagree with your assessment of John Dougherty, a very experienced reporter who didn’t make “remarks” as you said. I know him and he was simply reporting what a high ranking state official told him on the record. During the interview Mr. Dougherty took copious notes and there is no good reason to believe he reported incorrectly what Mr. Payne said. By the end of the day on Tuesday, the State Forester apologized for Mr. Payne’s remarks, but did not refute what was reported, even though Jim Paxon, one of the spokesmen for their agency, made a ridiculous assessment of Mr. Dougherty’s report earlier in the day before the state personnel circled the wagons. The state forester should also apologize for that.
Thank you for that clarification Bill!
And thank you for your comments below. It really clears up what happened in terms of this article.
I agree totally, all need to wait for the results of investigations and then learn from the facts….