A judge ruled last week that there is insufficient evidence to take to trial the men arrested for allegedly starting the 2021 Caldor Fire, which burned more than 221,000 acres south of Lake Tahoe, California.
David Scott Smith, 66, and his son Travis “Shane” Smith, 32, were arrested and charged with reckless arson in December 2021, months after the start of the fire. The two were accused of violating section 452 of the California Penal Code, commonly referred to as “reckless arson,” which causes inhabited properties to burn and results in great bodily injury to multiple victims. This charge can be filed against someone who unintentionally starts a fire. Both David and Travis were held on a $1 million bail, the district attorney’s office said. Both pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Travis and David Smith, suspects in Caldor Fire ignition.
One firefighter was severely burned while assigned to the fire. Richard Gerety III of Patterson was on a four-person engine crew from West Stanislaus Fire when he fell into burning material. It was his tenth day on the fire. He suffered third-degree burns on his arms and hands and second-degree burns to his legs, said his wife, Jennifer Gerety.
Capital Public Radio reported that prosecutors said the two men started the fire “when a projectile discharged from a firearm and struck an object.” But El Dorado County Superior Court Judge Vicki Ashworth has ruled there was not enough evidence to move the case to trial. “As to reckless burning charges, the court found there was insufficient evidence to meet the legal requirements that the behavior was reckless,” said the El Dorado County District Attorney’s office.
The Caldor Fire burned for 67 days in El Dorado, Alpine, and Amador counties, destroying more than 1,000 structures and forcing 53,000 people from their homes. It was the second fire to burn across the crest of the Sierra Nevada in state history, the first being the Dixie Fire earlier in the summer of 2021.
The pair still face gun-related charges, Shane Smith for possession of a machine gun, and David Smith for possession of a silencer. They will be arraigned in February.
According to a CBS News report, the relevant law specifically states that a defendant’s behavior must be “reckless as defined in Penal Code section 450, requiring that an individual knows their actions present a substantial and unjustifiable risk but consciously disregards that risk.” Prosecutors said they showed evidence that David and Thomas Smith drove out of a location where the Caldor Fire started, and they were shooting a gun on a day with dry conditions.
The USFS determined a bullet strike was the probable cause of the fire. Travis Smith will be arraigned on February 2 for possession of a machine gun, and David is scheduled to be in court the same day for arraignment on a charge of possessing a silencer.
It’s been nearly five months since wildfires devastated Lahaina, on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Since then, images of the destruction have captivated the nation.
Honolulu Civil Beat has compiled collections of photos from each month of the aftermath, cataloging the desperation and the assistance that has flooded the area since the wildfires were controlled.
“We have thousands of images in our growing media database, of Lahaina and Upcountry, the victims and the landscape that were left in ash and ruin,” Patti Epler wrote for the Civil Beat. “In the past nearly five months, we’ve photographed numerous community gatherings, resource fairs, public officials in various settings from press conferences to legislative hearings. We’ve picked a smattering that we think represents the story that is continuing to unfold and we’ll publish these galleries at the end of each month.”
A bill in the U.S. Senate to remove overtime pay caps for wildland firefighters, according to a report by Arizona Public Radio, might remove that cap, after many years of arguing whether fire crews receive overtime pay when they work overtime hours. Federal crews in both the DOI and the USDA face annual limits on the number of hours of overtime they can work — but they often exceed those limits, and it’s become more of an issue as fire seasons become longer with bigger fires.
Riva Duncan, the vice president of Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, explains that the group has endorsed this legislation. “However, we’ve also highlighted the gaps it does not address,” she says. “While we support lifting this pay cap, the reality is it affects only a few of those at the highest levels (GS-13 and above) engaged in fire management. I spent several years as a Forest Fire Chief and Deputy (GS-12 and GS-13) on high complexity national forests with long, complex fire seasons, and I never hit the cap. But I do know this affects many ICs who are GS-13 or higher — on IMTs as well as NIMO personnel — and it also affects some agency administrators. We believe those folks deserve to be paid for the work they’re doing and the sacrifices they make.”
Duncan explains that this legislation does not lift the biweekly pay cap for hazardous work that’s not officially deemed “emergency,” which thousands of wildland firefighters and support personnel engage in. “This includes prescribed fire, blowdown cleanup (operating chainsaws in extremely dangerous conditions), and other day-to-day hazardous work such as falling dead trees in campgrounds. Employees earn hazardous duty pay on wildland fires, and on some all-hazard incidents such as hurricanes, but this pay is not authorized by policy for ‘non-emergency’ work. It is important to acknowledge that while these changes can be accomplished through legislative solutions, it is well within the administrative power of the USFS, OPM, OMB, and the DOI agencies to provide these commonsense solutions for the actual boots on the ground. We challenge the agencies to find the courage to work together on this critical reform, just as firefighters find the courage to do their jobs every day.”
2023 Smith River Complex, inciweb photo
According to bill sponsor Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the Wildland Firefighter Fair Pay Act would ensure firefighters receive the overtime time pay they’re owed. The USFS says up to 500 supervisors either stop working or work on without pay when they reach the pay cap each year.
Back in November, Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) introduced legislation to permanently raise caps on overtime pay for federal firefighters. The bill would increase the pay caps to compensate federal wildland firefighters for their service. The legislation is cosponsored by Senators Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), and Jon Tester (D-Mont.).
“As increasingly devastating wildfire seasons scorch our forests and endanger communities across the West, our federal wildland firefighting force deserves our full support,” said Senator Padilla. “The overtime pay caps force firefighters to make an impossible choice: walk off the line or work for free. This legislation is a necessary step to make sure they get fair compensation.”
In mid-November the House passed an amendment to extend a temporary pay increase of $20,000 (annually per firefighter) through next year, which was approved by President Biden. Another bill to make a pay hike permanent remains stalled, though, and NPR’s Morning Edition reported that this latest budget deal averting a federal shutdown will also — for now — avert a massive pay cut for federal firefighters.
“Federal wildland firefighters perform dangerous, back-breaking jobs protecting our communities. Yet after they reach pay caps, they receive no overtime pay for the additional hours they work,” said Representative Zoe Lofgren. “This commonsense legislation will strengthen the workforce and ensure firefighters receive the overtime pay they deserve.” In mid-November, Government Executive reported that the House and then the Senate — and yet again, at the last minute — passed short-term resolutions to avoid a government shutdown and pay employees on time.
But most agencies are funded only through February 2 and some — Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Energy, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development (plus construction projects for Defense) will remain at fiscal 2023 funding levels until January 19.
Gray Fire 08/19/2023 — WSDOT photo
Despite risking their lives and traveling cross-country for months at a time to fight wildfires, many of the 11,000+ federal firefighters live paycheck to paycheck, working overtime hours without overtime pay. This inequity has contributed in a major way to a firefighter workforce shortage — in both recruitment and retention. Something like 20 percent of Forest Service permanent firefighter positions are vacant, and the federal government cannot — or won’t choose to — compete with pay rates offered by state and local agencies.
Three years ago, Bill Gabbert wrote that Diane Feinstein had introduced the Wildland Firefighter Pay Act, a bill that would raise the maximum limit on overtime pay for federal firefighters. The limit at that time affected higher level employees at the GS-12 and above level, along with some GS-11s depending on whether they were exempt from provisions in the Fair Labor Standards Act. Under those provisions, if they worked hundreds of hours of overtime they might reach the cap, after which they earn no more money. In some cases later in the fire season, employees who spent a long season fighting fires were told they’d earned too much and were forced to pay some of it back.
Chris Pietsch with the Register-Guard in Eugene caught this superb shot of an Aircrane working the Bedrock Fire, 2023 in Oregon.
Proposed legislation in 2021 would have eliminated the annual and pay period limits and created a new limit that set the maximum annual pay including overtime at Level II of the Executive Schedule, which in 2020 was $197,300.
The USFS estimated then that up to 500 senior-level firefighters either stop participating or do not request pay for hours worked once they reach the cap. This has a huge effect on wildfire response capabilities.
Wildfires made headlines numerous times throughout 2023, with the Lahaina wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui taking center stage in national media for months. For thousands of residents, recovery is still ongoing, with no end in sight.
Despite that, the year’s wildfire season was one of the quietest in decades. The National Interagency Fire Center estimated that 54,273 wildfires burned about 2.6 million acres. That’s the lowest yearly U.S. acreage burned by wildfire since 1998, when 81,043 wildfires burned 1.3 million acres.
The year is a relief for the wildland firefighters who are coming off multiple high-burn years in a row, with 2015, 2017, and 2020 each exceeding 10 million acres burned. The last time wildfires burned under 4 million acres was a decade ago when 63,312 fires in 2014 burned 3.6 million acres.
The reason for the low burn acreage could be attributed partly to 2023’s wet West. While the Eastern U.S. often has more wildfires, Western states see more acreage burned during the season. Thanks to above-average — and some record-breaking — snowfall in states including California, Arizona, and Nevada, wildfires couldn’t find a foothold.
“Nine atmospheric rivers over a three-week period fueled the record-breaking snowfall,” according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. “The snow brought much-needed relief to the drought-stricken West, with the exception of the Pacific Northwest, where rapid snowmelt and early melt contributed to moderate drought conditions in late spring.”
While the U.S. saw relief, its northern neighbor dealt with a nightmare. Canada burned a record-breaking 18 million hectares (more than 44 million acres, roughly the size of North Dakota) during its 2023 fire season. The total blows the nation’s previous most-burned year out of the water, according to the Canadian National Fire Database. The country’s previous record year was 1980, when nearly 8 million hectares burned.
In contrast to the Western U.S. record-setting snowfall, much of Canada’s forests experienced drought and high temperatures heading into its wildfire season, Canada’s Drought Monitor shows. Severe drought was seen throughout the year, while extreme drought was seen in every month after April.
Canadian fire years
As the world kicks off 2024, wildland firefighters across the West are hoping for another record-setting snowfall.
After a Lane County Circuit Court judge in Oregon denied PacifiCorp’s motion to dismiss the negligence claims back in December, KOIN-TV reports that a Willamette Valley winery is wanting accountability from utility companies after the devastating 2020 Labor Day fires.
Brigadoon Vineyards filed in June 2023 with negligence charges against Pacific Power — and its parent company PacifiCorp. KGW-TV reported last week that several vineyards in the Pacific Northwest have sued the utility company, claiming that the utility company’s powerlines started some of the 2020 Labor Day fires, which tainted grape crops at numerous wineries with smoke wafting over Northwest vineyards during and after the 2020 firestorm.
“It boggles the mind that they had an opportunity to turn off the power and they didn’t do it.”
Brigadoon argues in court that the Labor Day fires — the Santiam, Echo Mountain, Archie Creek Complex, 242, and South Obenchain fires in western Oregon in 2020 — resulted from PacifiCorp’s electrical system failures and the utility’s decisons to not de-energize its powerlines — caused smoke to taint the winery’s grapes, which crippled wine production and the winery’s sales. Multiple lawsuits filed by Willamette Valley vineyards and wineries against PacifiCorp, the parent company of electric utility Pacific Power, will proceed in court after several recent rulings. Attorneys for the winemakers plan to get other affected businesses on board with the legal action.
Elk Cove Vineyards, Willamette Valley Vineyards, and Brigadoon Winery thus far are just three of the affected winemakers to sue PacifiCorp individually. The complaints were filed separately but are all substantively similar — they each allege that PacifiCorp equipment failures ignited several of the Labor Day fires of 2020, and that the smoke from those fires then damaged grapes, the grape harvest, and wine sales for the wineries. Complainants are seeking almost $16 million in damages.
KOBI5 recently reported that Elk Cove Vineyards, Willamette Valley Vineyards, and Brigadoon Winery are just three of the winemakers to sue PacifiCorp so far, alleging that the power company’s lines, which they chose to not de-energize, started some of the 2020 fires that tainted or ruined the vineyards’ grape crops with heavy and longterm smoke.
Lawsuits from the 2020 Labor Day weekend fires have already cost PacifiCorp more than $73 million. Brigadoon Vineyards says PacifiCorp decided to not shut off power despite warnings from the National Weather Service and Oregon officials that a “historic red-flag-warning weather event would occur, producing catastrophic winds in excess of 50 mph, and hot dry air that was likely to cause electrical system failures that would cause dangerous fires.”
Brigadoon Vineyards says they were unable to sell wines to the public at their regular price — if at all –and the winery claims that it lost retail shelf spaces and also suffered reputational damage, which may take 5 to 7 years to recoup after the fires. Brigadoon is just one of several wineries, including Willamette Valley Vineyards, suing PacifiCorp for damages from the 2020 Labor Day fires.
Willamette Valley Vineyards
“Our grapes were just in the process of ripening at that time. And so many of the growers in the wineries were not able to use significant amounts of fruit they had grown,” said Jim Bernau, the founder of Willamette Valley Vineyards.
Very large bushfires in December of 2019 were rapidly spreading through areas of New South Wales and Victoria in southeast Australia, leaving behind hundreds of thousands of burned hectares, blackened forests, and destroyed structures in their wakes.
Victoria
Authorities in Victoria confirmed that at least 43 structures were destroyed in the Gippsland region where more than 400,000 hectares (988,000 acres) had burned. Many of the structures were in the Sarsfield and Buchan areas.
The military was activated to assist firefighters and the public. The Australian Defense Force deployed Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters, as well as fixed-wing aircraft and Navy vessels for firefighting support and evacuations. Authorities were considering using helicopters to fly in food and other supplies to people cut off by fires and road closures. Fire aviation specialists from the United States and Canada arrived in Australia to help manage aircraft.
New South Wales
At least 40 homes were destroyed by fires in Conjola Park on the south coast of NSW as the fire burned through on December 31. Many residents fled to the beach.
Many structures burned in Cobargo, including some of those along Princes Highway, the main street going through the town.
An engine crew from Fire and Rescue New South Wales Station 509 Wyoming recorded the video below showing the moment their truck was overrun by a fire south of Nowra, NSW. The crew was forced to shelter in their truck as the fire front passed through. The video was posted by NSW Rural Fire Service December 31, 2019 local time.
The crew from Fire and Rescue NSW Station 509 Wyoming recorded this video showing the moment their truck was overrun by the bushfire burning South of Nowra. The crew was forced to shelter in their truck as the fire front passed through. #NSWFires#ProtectTheIrreplaceablepic.twitter.com/Hb0yVrefi9
