“For some, it was the windiest day they had ever experienced on a fire, or, indeed, at all,” federal investigators reported.
Extreme winds and strained communications drove a fire across nearly seven and a half miles in under three hours on June 27. Five wildland firefighters were trapped near the Utah-Colorado border, and four died.
The joint investigation report came out on November 12 from the Interior Department.
The tragedy unfolded as members of the Rifle Helitack crew engaged in initial attack operations against the Knowles and Gore fires in Mesa County. Moving across mesa and canyon terrain, the Snyder Fire expanded into a much larger blaze that advanced with rapid velocity, catching the crew off guard.
Emily Barker, Nick Hutcherson, and Sydney Watson died at the scene on June 27. Nathan Matthews sustained severe burns and died on July 24, while a fifth crew member survived the burnover.
Pilots described the flying conditions on June 27 as some of the most difficult of their careers due to unrelenting winds.
Investigators said that dispatchers and air support struggled under the weight of multiple active wilderness starts. Overlapping radio frequencies and generic call signs confused units in the field.
The joint investigation from the newly created U.S. Wildland Fire Service and the U.S. Forest Service was published in a detailed report following the June 27 accident. The document reported that over the past 50 years, 23 firefighters have lost their lives fighting fires in the Upper Colorado River region.
Federal officials said that the area experienced extremely low snowpack over the winter following its warmest winter on record, creating dry conditions across Utah and the West.
Investigators detailed that nine seconds separated a radio transmission indicating a helicopter could no longer land from another reporting that firefighters were deploying shelters. The surviving firefighter held a shelter against the wind for 48 minutes while breathing into a small hole dug into the ground.
“Emily, Nick, Sydney and Nathan were out there for the people of western Colorado,” Deputy Secretary of the Interior Kate MacGregor said.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said that it is their duty to always remember the service and sacrifice of the fallen heroes, adding that wildland firefighters answer the call to serve and protect their fellow Americans every day and that their safety will always remain the highest priority.
Tactical choices regarding the Knowles Fire stemmed from an objective to safeguard sage-grouse habitat and halt the proliferation of cheatgrass, according to Erik Ingalsbee, the executive director of the advocacy group Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology.
“The policy driving this aggressive attack of all fires is an obsolete paradigm that is just humanly or ecologically unsustainable,” Ingalsbee said.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said that safety remains the department’s highest priority. “Every day, wildland firefighters answer the call to serve and protect their fellow Americans, and their safety will always be our highest priority,” Burgum said.
U.S. Wildland Fire Service Chief Brian Fennessy pledged that the agency would apply the report’s lessons.
“Throughout the investigation, we remained committed to honoring the sacrifice of our fallen firefighters by following the facts wherever they led,” Fennessy said.
