Forest Service asks if firefighters live dangerously

MOSCOW, Idaho — When five forest firefighters died in Southern California last year, investigators blamed risky decisions by managers.

But is the gung-ho culture of wildland firefighters also to blame? The U.S. Forest Service has commissioned a study to find out if it needs to change the attitudes of its staff toward fighting fires.

Firefighters, like astronauts, can share feelings of invincibility, a "right stuff" mentality that is dangerous, said University of Idaho researcher Chuck Harris, who is leading the study.

"Rather than question authority, they plug ahead and believe they can beat the fire," Harris said.

Researchers are spending the summer on fire lines, interviewing firefighters. The goal is to find out if firefighters and their managers are too focused on beating the flames, and not focused enough on safety, Harris said.

Fatalities from wildfires have risen from an average of 6.6 per year in the 1930s to 18 per year since the turn of the century, Harris said. Last year, 24 wildland firefighters died.

Getting far less attention are numerous "near misses" among the approximately 15,000 firefighters in the field each year, Harris said.

The Forest Service spent a record $2.5 billion fighting wildfires on 9.9 million acres last year. That amounted to 45 percent of its total budget, Harris said.

Harris said fighting wildfires is second only to warfare among the most dangerous activities for government employees. More housing being built near the woods, along with prolonged droughts, indicate the number of wildfires is likely to grow in coming years, he said.

Mark Rey, under secretary of the Department of Agriculture, has said the priorities of the Forest Service are unchanged, with the protection of firefighters first, residents second, structures third and natural resources last.

But do those priorities filter down to managers and to fire crews?

Harris said one disturbing statistic is that in wildfires, accidents and "burnovers" tend to be the leading causes of death. That's in contrast to urban firefighting, where cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death.

That indicates that wildland firefighters are more likely to be caught in flames and burned to death because of risky behavior, Harris speculated.