Fire Policy

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

This is a memorial to the 14 firefighters who died in 1994 on Storm King Mountain. They were trying to save the homes of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The loss of life was so staggering that it made a lot of U.S. Forest Service officials begin to wonder about the agency's traditional mandate to put out every fire. It was also a time when thousands of people were moving into the forests that were more prone to fire, building houses that could not be defended from the flames. Then, last year, another tragedy– four more firefighters lost their lives in the 30-mile fire in Washington State. Investigators found serious breaches in safety. All those things have led to a new, official firefighting policy, and Jim Payne is responsible for enforcing it for the Forest Service.

JIM PAYNE, U.S. Forest Service:

The policies over the years have stressed protection of life and property. We're now to the point of having to change that to focus on protection of human life and firefighter safety long before we worry about property.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

The impact was seen dramatically in June when the big Hayman fire broke out in Colorado. 133 homes were destroyed.

JIM PAYNE:

The fire that burned outside of Denver is a good example where homes were burning, they were evacuated– there was no threat to human life, there was a huge threat to property– but we elected to engage in strategy and tactics that maximized firefighter safety over the protection of unoccupied structures.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

You pulled back.

JIM PAYNE:

Absolutely.

SPOKESMAN:

We'll talk about it here in a minute…

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

The Forest Service is also using new technology to help keep the firefighters safe. Patterns of weather and fire behavior are analyzed, then that information is used to determine when, and where, to send firefighters. The agency has also imposed shorter shifts and longer rest periods for firefighters like Mike Uncapher. He's glad to see the change.

MIKE UNCAPHER:

People may lose their homes. If that happens, it's only because it was completely unsafe for people like me to be in there. We evacuated them for a reason. It's unsafe for them to be in there as well. You can see what I have on. I mean, I can't go into a burning structure and do anything about it. There's not a lot we can do to really change whether a home burns or not.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Letting homes burn was part of what started a controversy between the Forest Service and homeowners in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana two years ago.

MAN:

This was an overhanging porch. We had a beautiful porch right here, and then the bedroom overhung back there. We had three bedrooms, a computer room…

WOMAN:

Two bathrooms.

MAN:

Two bathrooms, a Jacuzzi that overlooked the valley down below.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Carter and Joan Giles lost their home in August of 2000, in a fire he says burned for days before the forest service tried to control it.

CARTER GILES, Homeowner:

I kind of thought they went in and put them out, and that doesn't seem to be the policy, because these fires over here sat for a long time before they were ever even looked at. And they could have been put out.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

But it wasn't just letting fires burn that angered people like the Giles. This case was more complicated because the fires that destroyed homes may have been caused by the Forest Service itself. Before the flames engulfed their home, the Giles took out their video camera.

CARTER GILES:

This is Dixon Creek, where the high plumes are coming.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Carter Giles remembers not being too worried.

CARTER GILES:

We never saw a flame from that fire. The night before we were watching that, and we just kind of put it out of our minds saying, "that's never going to catch us."

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

A few miles away, neighbor Wannie Campbell turned on her video recorder and shot what appeared to a backfire set by the U.S. Forest Service to stop the main fire from spreading.

WANNIE CAMPBELL:

It looks to me, from the way that it is, with the pumper down there and everything, that they have backfired that intentionally.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

But instead of slowing the fire down, on the video, it seems to have the opposite effect.

WANNIE CAMPBELL:

What I hope they realize is that goes right up over the top of that slope into Dixon Creek. I hope those people are out of there. I'm going to call my friends and make them go right now.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Greg Tilford was standing fire watch about the same time that video was recorded.

GREG TILFORD:

I'm a 220-pound man– at least I was two years ago– and on that day, when I was on top of the hill watching this, and those… that smoke came up, the wind was intense. I mean, I… it almost blew me off my feet. The gusts almost blew me off my feet. I had to reposition myself to stand up on top of the point. That's how strong the wind was blowing.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

The fires that started from the backfire grew so fast and burned so hot that the Forest Service, in keeping with its safety first policy, pulled its crews back. 40 homes were destroyed, including Tilford's. Cap and Sharon Hand didn't lose all of their house in the fire, but their property was devastated.

GEORGE "CAP" HAND, Homeowner; The beauty of the place. We lost all of that. You know, that's why we moved up here to start with.

SHARON HAND, Homeowner:

I was born and raised in Arizona. To live in the mountains has always been my dream. And it was perfect. It's not for everybody– we're remote– but it was gorgeous. You woke up every morning and it was all worth it. No matter how hard it was sometimes, it was all worth it, and it's gone. Look at it.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Today the Hands are milling lumber from the trees that were burned in the fire to build an extension on what was left of their home. Like Tilford and the Giles, they're angry with the Forest Service. So all five have joined more than 100 others in filing a $54 million claim against the agency. They say the Forest Service was negligent in the way it conducted firefighting operations.

SHARON HAND:

Some really bad decisions were made. More than anything, I would like somebody to tell me what they were thinking when they did that. What in the world were you thinking? They had been all over up here. They knew the fuel that was up here, they knew there were people up here– what were they thinking? At the bottom of the mountain, you light a fire?

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

A spokesman for the Forest Service said the agency would have no comment about the case because it involves ongoing litigation. Forest Service officials know the safety first policy is going to be unpopular with people who want to live in the woods, but they say the agency will hang tough.

JIM PAYNE:

It's a decision that we have to make repeatedly. Political pressure to accomplish the agency's mission has always been part of the picture. It's not a foreign concept to us, but we're resisting the pressure from the public and from others, and we are going to put firefighter safety first.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

Greg Tilford leads the group of Montana residents who are seeking damages from the Forest Service. Like most of the others, he lost everything.

GREG TILFORD:

Well, I certainly understand the concern for firefighter safety. I certainly can understand that. And I can, to an extent, understand the need to enact a sudden policy to stop some of the tragedies that have happened in recent years with firefighters, but unless other measures are taken, I think it's kind of a copout, because it's not just about standing back and doing nothing. Somebody has to do something.

BETTY ANN BOWSER:

It's estimated more than a million people like Tilford will be moving into high-risk fire areas in the next ten years. Meanwhile, even with the new emphasis on safety, fighting fires remains a dangerous business. In just the past two months, 15 firefighters have died in the line of duty.