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"What happened after that is the story
of how a no-account wildfire in a remote corner of the Northwest
cut off and trapped a group of firefighters, who were joined
by two civilians who came out of nowhere. The fire gave everyone
time to prepare, though the time was wasted. And then it rose
in fury, took an unexpected twist, and swept to it's horrific
climax." (From The Thirtymile Fire p.4). "Why did the
Thirtymile Fire take the fatal left hook and blast a tiny area
that became the fatality site, when everyone thought it was going
to pass safely by? "(p.141).
Podcasts Now Available Tap on the controllers below
for the podcasts.
PART 1
32 minutes 11 seconds. Recorded 17 July 2007
John talks about fire management in the forest, and how the Thirtymile
Fire was fought.
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"Well
they got dragged into a ....I don't even want to call it a plan....it
was something that had been communicated...badly..which is,.'Why
don't you try and stop the fire from crossing the road? You don't
have to do it, but maybe we can do that.' Well, why? There was
nothing on the other side of the road to save, you are not talking
about commercial or even recreational timber values. "......and
because of that you wind up with over forty people committed
to a fire, in the middle of the afternoon, the hottest part of
the day, a fire that had blown up, that they knew they couldn't
handle, in the most dangerous time of year, in a very narrow
canyon, that everybody had been told was going to burn out." |
PART 2
27 minutes 53 seconds. Recorded 17 July 2007
John discusses the legal ramifications of the Thirtymile Fire
and some of the challenges faced now by fire managers.
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"Tragedy is our greatest
drama. This fire has not been allowed to become a complete tragedy
yet. Because there has been no catharsis. There has been no completion.
There has been no sense that everything's finished; you have
been drained of pity and compassion and fear and you can walk
away from this now. You can't walk away from this one."
"Ellreese Daniels is alone in the dock. His trial is scheduled
for October 15th this story is not over. .....A lot of people
made mistakes that day why aren't they there? The U.S. Attorney
in Spokane who is pursuing this is saying this is not going to
be a precedent for other wildland firefighters because it's such
an extreme case of negligence, I'm sorry, it's already a precedent,
because he's been indicted. How can James McDevitt
speak for other U.S. Attorneys? How
does he know that other U.S. Attorneys will say, 'Well the case
that I'm looking at isn't as bad as the one that McDevitt did,
with Ellreese Daniels, therefore I'm not going to do anything
about it.'.......".....he's trying to calm people down.
I don't think he speaks for other prosecutors." |
The
Thirtymile Fire by John Norman Maclean
The
Thirtymile Fire: A Chronicle of Bravery and Betrayal
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