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Tag: Yarnell Fire

Mann Gulch Fire, 64 years ago today

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , 2 Comments on Mann Gulch Fire, 64 years ago today

A wildfire entrapped 15 smokejumpers and a fire guard in Mann Gulch on August 5, 1949 on the Helena National Forest in Montana. The fire took the lives of 13 men and burned nearly 5,000 acres.

The fatalities:

  • Robert J. Bennett
  • Eldon E. Diettert
  • James O. Harrison
  • William J. Hellman
  • Philip R. McVey
  • David R. Navon
  • Leonard L. Piper
  • Stanley J. Reba
  • Marvin L. Sherman
  • Joseph B. Sylvia
  • Henry J. Thol, Jr.
  • Newton R. Thompson
  • Silas R. Thompson
The 13 men who were killed in the Mann Gulch fire. U. S. Forest Service photo.

The story of this fire was told by Norman Maclean in his book “Young Men and Fire”.

The sketch below is from the official report.

In light of the June 30 deaths of 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots on the Yarnell Hill Fire and their attempted use of an escape fire to create a refuge zone, you may be interested in a paper that analyzed Smokejumper Foreman Wag Dodge’s escape fire that probably saved his life on the Mann Gulch Fire. In the 27-page document written by Martin E. Alexander, Mark Y. Ackerman, and Gregory J. Baxter, they concluded that the size of Mr. Dodge’s escape fire was about 120 feet by 86 feet when it was overrun by flames from the main fire. Mr. Dodge later told investigators that he explained to the firefighters nearby that after the escape fire spread and cooled in the interior, they should take refuge in the new burned area with him. Unfortunately, none of them did.

The paper includes a statement made by Mr. Dodge that was included in Earl Cooley’s 1984 book, Trimotor and Trail.

When the main fire reached my area, I lay down on the ground on my side and poured water from my canteen on my handkerchief over my mouth and nose and held my face as close to the ground as I could while the flames flashed over me. There were three extreme gusts of hot air that almost lifted me from the ground as the fire passed over me. It was running in the grass and also flashing through the tree tops. By 6:10 p.m. the fire had passed by and I stood up. My clothing had not been scorched and I had no burns.

 

Here is a photo of Mann Gulch taken in 2008, from The Travels of John and Breya.

Rolling Stone covers wildfire

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags 3 Comments on Rolling Stone covers wildfire

We’re not sure if it made the cover of Rolling Stone, but the August 15, 2013 issue has an interesting article titled “The Great Burning — How Wildfires Are Threatening the West: Terrifying blazes are the new normal in the West, where a mix of climate change and Tea Party politics has put an entire region at risk.”

The piece written by free-lancer Osha Gray Davidson of Phoenix, uses the tragic Yarnell Hill Fire as an anchor, but primarily covers the current state of wildfire management and suppression. He mentions several examples of how politicians are using that fire and the deaths of 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots as leverage to criticize existing federal forest management and to introduce legislation to increase logging on national forests, in spite of the fact that the Yarnell Hill Fire was not on federal land and there were virtually no trees in the area.

Mr. Davidson ends the article by writing about the Granite Mountain Hotshots:

“Granite Mountain was the only hotshot crew in the nation that was attached to a city fire department. [Rick Heron, part of another Arizona crew that worked on the Yarnell Hill fire], says that may be why the Granite Mountain Hotshots had a unique reputation. “They were the most family-oriented crew I’ve ever met,” he says. Perhaps, Heron speculates, those very ties caused them to continue battling the blaze when bad weather was moving in. “If you’re talking about houses that belong to your neighbors or cousins or to your Uncle Jimmy,” he says, “it makes it harder to leave.”

If that is what happened, then the saddest irony of the tragedy on Yarnell Hill may be that the Granite Mountain Hotshots lived their lives and met their deaths out of a sense of communal responsibility – the very opposite of the culture that has gotten us into such a fatal situation in the first place. It seems reasonable to wonder: If America behaved more like the Granite Mountain crew, perhaps our fire problem wouldn’t be so intractable.”

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If you leave a comment below, please avoid partisan politics.

Apology issued for statements Arizona state official made about Yarnell Hill Fire

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , 11 Comments on Apology issued for statements Arizona state official made about Yarnell Hill Fire

(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.

Arizona state official says Granite Mountain Hotshots made mistakes

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , 22 Comments on Arizona state official says Granite Mountain Hotshots made mistakes

Granite Mountain Hotshots

(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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(UPDATE at 12:15 a.m. MDT, July 31, 2013)

The Arizona State Forestry Division has issued an apology for the “unauthorized opinions” expressed by Deputy Director Jerry Payne.

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(Originally published at 12:42 p.m. MDT, July 30, 2013)

An official with the Arizona State Forestry Division told a reporter Monday that the Granite Mountain Hotshots made mistakes and violated procedures that led to the deaths of 19 members of their crew on the Yarnell Hill Fire on June 30.

John Dougherty, of Investigative Media, recently interviewed Jerry Payne, a deputy director of the Arizona State Forestry Division, who told him that Eric Marsh, the Superintendent of the hotshot crew, was serving as Division Supervisor the day of the fatal accident. One of the captains on the crew took Mr. Marsh’s place and the hotshots were assigned to Marsh’s Division.

Mr. Dougherty wrote that the deputy director told him that while the hotshot crew was hiking from the black, or burned area of the fire toward the ranch house:

…it appears that Marsh violated 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 division supervisor broke those rules and put those people at risk.”

The crew became entrapped by the fire and died while they were still 1,900 feet away from the safety zone at the ranch house.

Mr. Payne also said, according to Mr. Dougherty:

The lawsuits are going to start. The sharks are circling.

You can read the entire article at Investigative Media.

Our analysis

It is surprising that key officials are making statements such as the ones above by the state and the opinions expressed earlier this month by Chief Willis of Prescott Fire Department. After most serious accidents or fatalities on wildland fires, individuals wait until the official investigation report is released — and even then may be very reluctant to talk about the incident. It could cause a person to wonder what motivated Mr. Willis and Mr. Payne to be so vocal.

More details on last minutes of Granite Mountain 19

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags 10 Comments on More details on last minutes of Granite Mountain 19

Granite Mountain HotshotsArizonaCentral.com has obtained copies of reports written by an Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter crew which provide information about the last radio transmissions from the Granite Mountain Hotshots before the Hotshots were entrapped and killed on the Yarnell Hill Fire June 30 in Arizona.

According to the report, at 4:30 p.m. the crew was in a previously burned area, in the black, moving to Yarnell.

Below is an excerpt from the article about what happened next:

“…A short time later [someone on the crew] came back up on the radio advising they were heading to a ranch they had in sight,” the report reads. “It was shortly after that (a crew member) came back up on the radio sounding excited, out of breath.” The records indicate the hotshot repeatedly tried to contact Air Attack, circling the fire, with no response.

Commanders coordinating the aerial attack on the fire offered a direct reply shortly after, according to other members of the DPS crew.

“Whoever is yelling on the radio needs to stop,” the reports state.

Immediately afterward, a commander came on the radio and asked the hotshot crew to continue the transmission, according to the report.

“(A crew member) advised their escape route had been cut off and they were deploying their shelters,” the report states. “I heard numerous attempts by Air Attack trying to contact (the crew member) after this with no response.”

Moments later, a fire chief who was coordinating air operations drove up to the DPS helicopter where medics and crew members were waiting. They informed the operations chief what had just taken place.

“(The operations chief) advised me that he was on a separate channel and did not hear the traffic,” according to the report.

No more radio transmissions were heard from the Hotshot crew.

Prescott Division Chief provides more information about fatalities at Yarnell Hill Fire

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , 6 Comments on Prescott Division Chief provides more information about fatalities at Yarnell Hill Fire
Yarnell Hill Fire Fatality Site, Photo by Joy Collura, labels by Wildfire Today
Fatality site photo, looking east. Photo by Joy Collura (used with permission), labels by Wildfire Today

Prescott Fire Department Division Chief Darrell Willis on Tuesday escorted members of the media to the site on the Yarnell Hill fire where 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots were killed June 30. John Dougherty, an investigative reporter who has written for the New York Times, was there and recorded these videos of Chief Willis’ briefing. They are embedded here with his permission. John also wrote an article about his visit to the site.

The first video is the Chief providing his understanding of what happened, and in the second he takes questions from the reporters.

In the photo below of the entrapment site, which is looking toward the west, the road was punched in by a dozer after the incident to facilitate the removal of the bodies, which were at the end of the road. The photo was taken by Wade Ward of the Prescott FD, and is used here with permission.
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