PHOENIX (AP) - A federal firefighter crew made every effort, including driving through a wall of flames, to get to 19 firefighters trapped in the Yarnell Hill Fire in Arizona, according to work logs released this week.
The log entries, obtained by The Arizona Republic (https://bit.ly/1jH7lAb) through a public records request, were released Thursday by the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health.
The agency received the records from the federal government for its investigation into the June 30 deaths of 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots.
In the documents, members of the federal Blue Ridge Hotshots describe how they drove around a chaotic scene in a desperate attempt to get aid to the other firefighters.
A Blue Ridge crew boss, whose name was redacted, and a second firefighter jumped into a vehicle and tried going down one access road. According to the crew boss’ recollections, the two men warned residents who hadn’t been ordered to evacuate to flee while still considering going after the trapped firefighters. They were then joined by two other firefighters on off-road vehicles.
All four “sit there for a few minutes contemplating the situation,” the crew boss wrote. “We all know it is cold black beyond the first wall of heat and the propane tanks that are venting … and then we all just go for it.”
The men made it through the wall of fire and then started searching on foot, according to the Blue Ridge supervisor’s notes. After hearing a helicopter pilot broadcasting the GPS coordinates of where firefighters’ shelters were deployed, the supervisor made it near the brush-choked bowl where the men were.
“I am on the scene of the incident … and it’s clear there are no survivors,” he wrote.
The Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health was prevented from interviewing the Blue Ridge Hotshots by the U.S. Forest Service.
Dick Mangan, a retired U.S. Forest Service investigator who has assisted in two dozen accident inquiries across the country, said it’s not surprising Blue Ridge members went searching for the Granite Mountain firefighters once they knew shelters had been implemented.
“Once somebody says you’re deploying, and you don’t have radio communication on them, everything stops and the whole focus is an incident within an incident,” Mangan said. “There’s not a whole lot that I probably would’ve done differently if I had been the superintendent of the Blue Ridge Hotshots.”
The families of several firefighters have since filed wrongful-death claims against the state. The claims are precursors to possible lawsuits.
An Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health report found that the Arizona State Forestry Division knowingly put protection of property ahead of safety and should have pulled crews out earlier. The state’s Industrial Commission levied a nearly $560,000 fine against the forestry division, which it is contesting.
The wildfire destroyed more than 100 homes in Yarnell, northwest of Phoenix. In January, the city of Prescott denied more than 100 damage claims seeking $662 million for property owners and relatives of deceased firefighters.
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Information from: The Arizona Republic, https://www.azcentral.com
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