Victor Serriteno, was arrested for starting the Markely Fire in 2020 that killed two people in their homes. Photo: Vacaville Police Department.
A person accused of starting the Markely fire in Northern California in August of 2020 has been arrested for arson and three counts of murder.
The fire started August 18 near the southeast end of Lake Berryessa and grew large quickly during during hot, dry, windy weather. It merged with the Hennessy, Gamble, Green, Spanish, 5-10, and Morgan Fires which were managed under the LNU Lightning Complex.
Investigators say Victor Serriteno murdered Priscilla Castro, a 32-year-old from Vallejo, who he had arranged to meet after finding her on an online dating app.
“We believe Serriteno deliberately set the Markley fire in an attempt to conceal his crime,” Solano County Sheriff Tom Ferrara said at a news conference Wednesday.
The Markley Fire killed two people in their homes, Douglas Mai, 82, and Leon Bone, 64.
Mr. Serriteno was arrested by Vacaville Police in September and charged with the murder of Ms. Castro. Wednesday the Solano County district attorney’s office added three additional charges, arson and two counts of murder for the two fire victims’ deaths.
Some of the fires that were part of the LNU Lightning Complex in 2020.Markley Fire August, 2020, showing the locations of the deaths of the two people who were killed in their homes.
Riva Duncan testifies remotely during Congressional hearing, April 29, 2021. Still image from live video.
In the oversight hearing today before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands a former U.S. Forest Service firefighter spoke truth to power.
Riva Duncan, who recently retired from the Fire Staff Officer position on the Umpqua National Forest in Oregon, testified remotely about job classification, pay disparity, employee health and wellbeing, recruitment, size of the workforce, and fire seasons transforming into fire years.
I have watched many Congressional hearings about wildland fire and the agencies that manage them, and this is the first time I can remember that a firefighter who had worked their way up from an entry level position and had not been tainted by serving time in the Washington Office, testified about firefighting conditions. In 2016 Kelly Martin, then Yosemite National Park’s Chief of Fire and Aviation Management, testified about sexual harassment, but she was not asked questions about pay, hiring, and retention.
Ms. Duncan, now the Executive Secretary of the Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, submitted 13-pages of testimony, but the last portion of her five-minute opening oral remarks had a memorable impact on the politicians. Toward the end she choked up a little — you can probably guess which section provoked that response.
“I am not here to disparage the US Forest Service,” she said, bringing her formal remarks to a close. “These issues are larger than any one agency and will take complex, and expensive, solutions. It truly was my honor to serve the US Forest Service and the American people. I loved working in fire, but I love the people I worked with even more. I have grown weary of losing amazing friends and colleagues, and I have grown impatient with inaction. The US is burning, wildland firefighters are struggling, and some are even dying. The time for reform is now. Thank you.”
Not only were her words powerful, but her delivery got the attention of the politicians — a category of humans not generally known for their compassion and empathy. During the rest of the hearing many of the Representatives used a little of their allotted time to tell her how much they appreciated her participation.
“I want to thank you for your testimony and your service, said Rep. Joe Neguse (CO), Chair of the Subcommittee. “It’s incredibly powerful and certainly resonated with me and every member of our committee on both sides of the aisle.”
In her written testimony Ms. Duncan said, “Our inability to hire and retain wildland firefighters has become readily apparent with record setting fire management vacancy rates through the federal service. Hiring managers are finding themselves unable to fill empty positions, and lacking compensation is a primary contributing factor.”
The hearing was titled, Wildfire in a Warming World: Opportunities to Improve Community Collaboration, Climate Resilience, and Workforce Capacity.
Chairperson Neguse began the hearing by proposing a new “Climate Corps to address immediate restoration needs and create rural jobs… a pipeline for careers in land management and conservation.”
“We need more well paid, permanent opportunities to grow the federal land management workforce,” the Chairperson continued. “As the budget has shifted toward wildfire suppression, there has been a corresponding reduction in non-fire personnel costing us land managers, biologists, other scientists with the expertise for planning for fire to improve the resiliency of the landscape in the first place… While the fire funding fix ended the practice of fire borrowing it did virtually nothing to improve the health care, pay, or general well being of those on the front line of these climate-driven disasters — our Federal wildland firefighters.”
Rashida Tlaib (MI) asked about pay and transitioning to a full time workforce.
Ms. Duncan replied in part, “We can’t fix anything around the fire workforce without adequate pay, a decent living wage.” Later she talked about how funding has been cut across the Forest Service, not just in fire.
Rep. Tlaib said, “I truly believe it is unacceptable that we are asking Federal wildland firefighters to protect the vast territories for just pennies on the dollar and I’m hoping that we can take action in this committee to raise pay and benefits to support our firefighters as the professionals that they are.”
One Representative has a wildland fire background
“I know wildland firefighting well, said Rep. Teresa Fernandez (NM). “I was the first young woman hired to assist the State of New Mexico Forest Service during fire season. All five of my brothers fought forest fires. As noted earlier there is no such thing as fire season anymore.”
When Rep. Fernandez asked what Congress can do to help, Ms. Duncan did not pull any punches and laid the responsibility where it rightly lies– with the people she was testifying to and their colleagues:
“We really need legislators like you all and the administration to take the lead to pass real meaningful reform to make these agencies work with the Office of Personnel Management and Office of Management and Budget to work very directly and quickly to move forward with a new [job] series and then tie additional pay to that,” Ms Ducan said. “I think most people would be shocked to know an entry level wildland firefighter makes less than $14 an hour. That’s embarrassing and it’s amazing what these people, who risk their lives, make for a living. It’s a travesty.”
Why would anyone want to be a Federal wildland firefighter?
Rep. Katie Porter (CA) asked Ms. Duncan: “Why would anyone want to be a Federal firefighter and get paid $13.45, below what we have been pressing for as the minimum wage for jobs that don’t require the kind of training and risk to your person? Why would anyone become a federal firefighter instead of a state firefighter where the pay is nearly double?”
“That’s the million-dollar question and we’re struggling to hire people now into those entry level positions”, Ms. Duncan replied. “We’re struggling to staff our engines and our crews because of that. For some of them it’s a summer job, to put themselves through college. They’ve grown up in a community where there is a Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management office, so it’s an easy jump for them to get into that. But they get bit by the fire bug, they love the career, and then find themselves making it difficult to meet financial goals.”
“Let’s get the classification going”
Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, chair of the full Natural Resources Committee said to Ms. Duncan, “We [have been] working on legislation in a couple of Congresses now on reclassifying our Forestry Technicians into Wildland Firefighters… Let’s get some more folks on board and get it through this time. Let’s get the classification going and then we can start remedying the pay schedule as well, too. So I think, one step at a time around here.”
After talking about efficiencies in the federal agencies, he told Ms. Duncan, “Please contact our office with ideas. We’re just trying to find ways to move more effectively within the law or change the law where needed. Because we want to be streamlined in what needs to be done.
Other topics
Of course it was not all about firefighters. Courtney Schultz, an Associate Professor for Forest and Natural Resource Policy told the committee, “In addition to supporting agency research, Congress should consider restoring full funding for the Joint Fire Science Program, the biggest and most effective program that addresses agencies’ priorities for fire research.”
Later Ms. Schultz said capacity is the greatest barrier to making progress in fuel management.
Several of the Representatives mentioned reducing or eliminating regulations to make conducting projects easier.
Should local government or industry manage National Forests?
Rep. Tom Tiffany (WI) said we have too much preservation: “I think we have a fundamental question here between management and preservation and the west has suffered under preservation for about the last three decades.”
He asked one of the other panelists, California rancher Dave Daley, about local management of National Forests — “Would local government or industry be more successful in managing these wildfire risks and just managing the resources generally?”
Mr. Daley talked about the Good Neighbor Authority which allows the Forest Service to enter into agreements with state agencies to do forest management work on National Forests, saying it has been used in California.
Rep. Tom McClintock (CA) used all of his allotted time to talk about the benefits of logging. He did not ask any questions.
Rep. Blake Moore (UT) emphasized the importance of post-fire management.
The video of the hearing below should be cued up to begin about 10 seconds before Ms. Duncan’s opening remarks. If it does not start there, you can skip to 36:00.
The President raised the minimum wage for Federal contractors to $15/hour, which is more than the starting pay for Federal wildland firefighters
Firefighters hold a road on the Cedar Fire in Nevada, July 20, 2020. Photo: Mike McMillan/BLM Elko District.
The President signed an Executive Order yesterday requiring Federal contractors to pay a $15 minimum wage to hundreds of thousands of workers who are on Federal contracts.
From a statement issued by the White House:
These workers are critical to the functioning of the Federal government: from cleaning professionals and maintenance workers who ensure Federal employees have safe and clean places to work, to nursing assistants who care for the nation’s veterans, to cafeteria and other food service workers who ensure military members have healthy and nutritious food to eat, to laborers who build and repair Federal infrastructure.
“I believe no one should work full-time and still live in poverty,” President Joe Biden said in a Twitter post announcing the move.
Raising the minimum wage to $15 for all workers in the United States is long past overdue. The last time it was changed was 13 years ago when it increased from $5.15 per hour to the current rate of $7.25 per hour.
The cleaning professionals and cafeteria workers mentioned in the statement from the White House as examples of Federal contractors who will be covered by the new minimum wage need this new policy. It is extremely difficult to support a family while making less. If they receive a bump in pay when the policy goes into effect January 30, 2022, that’s great for them. And the pay will be adjusted annually based on the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers.
But let us consider who will not be receiving the minimum pay of $15 an hour — Federal wildland firefighters, roughly 15,000 employees who work under the ridiculous titles of Forestry or Range Technician. Most of them start at the GS-3 level which this year is $13.45 an hour. Many of them will remain a GS-3 for years. When they become a highly skilled firefighter a few years later they might be promoted to a GS-4 making $15.20 an hour, which is less than the starting pay at some McDonald’s outlets.
From the Sisters, Oregon McDonalds Facebook page, April 22, 2021.
The only way these professional firefighters can even begin to support a family is to work 1,000 hours of overtime each year. This is a physically and emotionally demanding job. Shifts on a going fire are typically 14 to 16 hours leaving only 8 to 10 hours each day when they are off the clock, which is not enough time to rest, recuperate, and take care of personal needs.
Federal wildland firefighters travel across the country going state to state wherever the fires are. When the largest blazes need 5,000 personnel, they may be staffed with individuals from nearly every U.S. state. Being away from home and family for extended periods of time every year puts stresses on the firefighters and their households.
Our opinion
Federal wildland firefighters need to be paid at least as much as cafeteria workers. Men and women defending our country by suppressing fires are grossly underpaid and deserve a large boost in salary. This could slow down the hordes that are quitting to seek a living wage, moving to city, state, and private organizations. Their pay needs to be competitive and commensurate with wages that could be earned doing the same job with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) and Pacific Gas and Electric.
Last week the McDonalds in Sisters, Oregon was seeking new employees, offering starting pay of $15.50 to $18.25 and a hiring bonus of $1,000.
These extraordinary employees also need to be reclassified correctly as actual Firefighters, not forestry technicians.
Some efforts are underway, such as the request by nine U.S. Senators for the Government Accountability Office to conduct an assessment of hiring and retention of Federal wildland firefighters at the five Federal agencies responsible for wildland fire.
Tomorrow, April 29 at 1 p.m. EDT, the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands, led by Chair Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), will host an oversight hearing titled Wildfire in a Warming World: Opportunities to Improve Community Collaboration, Climate Resilience, and Workforce Capacity. Riva Duncan, now retired from the Fire Staff Officer position on the Umpqua National Forest in Oregon, is scheduled to testify. This could be interesting. You can watch it live, or replay it later.
The video below is the daily White House Press Briefing from April 27, 2021. The first item covered by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is the Executive Order about the new minimum wage for contractors.
Precipitation is predicted for the fire area through Thursday
Updated at 11:30 a.m. MDT April 29, 2021
Precipitation continues to fall on the Three Rivers Fire 8 miles northwest of Ruidoso, New Mexico. The “Smoky Bear” weather station near the city recorded more than half an inch since 1 a.m. Thursday.
Information from the incident management team (IMT) says firefighters are constructing direct fireline to further secure the blaze. As of Wednesday evening the team was still calling it 12,000 acres, but that number could change significantly when they are able to map the fire from the air without interference from clouds.
The IMT reported that evacuations have been lifted in the following areas: Nogal Canyon Area (up to the Nogal Peak Trailhead), Bonito Canyon Area up to the Bonito Lake Dam, Church Mountain, Ranchman’s Camp, Loma Grande, Cora Dutton, Magado, Ski Apache up to the Eagle Lakes turn, and Villa Madonna.
Three Rivers Fire April 27, 2021. USFS photo.
More rain and snow Wednesday morning has at least temporarily slowed the spread of the Three Rivers Fire eight miles northwest of Ruidoso, New Mexico. An additional six-tenths of an inch of precipitation is in the forecast for the fire area through Thursday, which could deposit more than five inches of snow in the higher elevations. The greatest chance of precipitation will be Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The live camera at Ruidoso showed wet streets in the city at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Clouds for the last two days have prevented satellites and fixed wing aircraft from mapping the fire to determine exactly where it has burned. Fire officials for the last 24 hours have been using the 12,000-acre figure as their estimate for the size, before the rain and snow paused the spread. They hope to refine that number Wednesday afternoon and expect it to decrease after they can actually see the fire from the air and more accurately map unburned areas.
The Type 1 Incident Management Team assumed command of the fire at 6 a.m. Wednesday morning.
The fire has burned into the Little Bear Fire scar from 2012, where there is less vegetation to fuel the blaze.
At one point the fire had a 2-mile wide flaming front
Marsden Moor fire in the UK, April, 2021. Photo by West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service.
About 70 firefighters have been battling a wildfire in the United Kingdom since Sunday night on Marsden Moor.
The firefighters thought they had the spread stopped Monday afternoon, but it flared up again overnight.
From the Manchester Evening News Tuesday at 8:13 p.m.:
A spokesman for West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that the blaze had grown, covering over two square miles of moorland.
They said: “The fire currently has a flame front of 2 miles, with an area of 2 square miles affected by the blaze.
“There are currently around 70 firefighters on scene working with partners.
From a BBC article about the fire Tuesday evening:
Fireworks have been found on moorland where a wildfire has been burning since Sunday.
A BBC crew filming at the scene discovered a box labelled Cosmic Chaos on Marsden Moor, near Huddersfield. The cause of the blaze, which has spread across 2 sq miles (5 sq km) is not yet known, but bonfires, fireworks and barbecues are banned on the National Trust site.
Nine Senators signed letter asking how to strengthen the federal firefighting workforce
Firefighters gather for a briefing on the Springs Fire on the Boise National Forest near Banks, Idaho, August 12, 2020. Kari Greer photo for U.S. Forest Service.
Nine U.S. Senators signed a letter requesting that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conduct an assessment of hiring and retention of federal wildland firefighters at the five federal agencies responsible for wildland fire. Those agencies are:
Forest Service
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Bureau of Land Management
Fish and Wildlife Service
National Park Service
The Senators, almost 10 percent of all Senators, asked that the GAO make recommendations for how these agencies can improve wildfire prevention and suppression efforts by strengthening the federal firefighting workforce.
Excerpts from the letter:
Wildfires in the West are now a near-constant threat and we can no longer afford to rely on just a seasonal firefighting workforce. Transitioning to a larger, full-time workforce would add immediate capacity to fight wildfires nationwide, allow for greater flexibility in shifting personnel between regions depending on wildfire activity, provide more stable work opportunities and employee benefits, increase employee retention, and reduce agency costs and burdens associated with the seasonal hiring process.
[…]
Assess whether OPM should create a new, separate job series and pay scale for federal wildland firefighters to ensure their pay is commensurate with state firefighting agencies and reflects their training requirements and the hazardous conditions they must endure.
The Grassroots Wildland Firefighters had some input into this effort. This is a rapidly growing organization that is becoming a factor in implementing changes that could benefit Forestry and Range Technicians whose primary job is fighting wildland fires.
This is the organization’s mission:
The Grassroots Wildland Firefighter Committee is dedicated to promoting and advocating for Federal Wildland Fire personnel titled Forestry Technicians and Range Technicians. Our mission is to advocate for proper classification, pay, benefits and comprehensive well being. Our mission is to educate the public, generate support and provide solutions to our federal representatives through policy reform.
The three-page letter written by the Senators is below. To scroll to the additional pages, click on or hover your mouse over the document then click on the down arrow at bottom-left.
[pdf-embedder url=”https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Letter-to-GAO-Federal-Firefighting-Workforce.pdf” title=”Letter to GAO – Federal Firefighting Workforce”]
