The Senate staffer who ran an office pool to guess the number of acres burned each year and how many firefighting planes would crash apologized this week. Frank Gladics had been running the annual contest since 2003. It was open to staffers on the House Senate Energy and Appropriations Committees that oversee federal firefighting operations.
Criticism of the pool came from Lynnette Hamm, mother of Caleb Hamm who died on the CR 337 fire in Texas last summer, and the Federal Wildland Fire Service Association.
Robert Dillon, spokesman for the Republicans on the committee, said Gladics started the pool because of his frustration with U.S. Forest Service wildfire management, including the agency’s decision to ground aging aircraft. Dillon said “We certainly understand this is in poor taste and it’s been stopped. There was no disrespect meant and we are horrified anybody would think we disrespect the sacrifices the firefighters have made.”
Frankly, I don’t have a huge problem with a guess-the-acres contest. What bothers me is competing to correctly guess, according to the Grist site that first broke the story,
…how many fire-fighting planes (“fixed-wing, heavy-slurry aircraft”) will crash…
When air tankers crash, the crews almost always die. This contest where the prize is a “When Pigs Fly” hat or a “Holly Jolly Christmas” hat, is extremely disrespectful to the living and dead crews of firefighting aircraft, and all firefighters.