New report questions readiness of Northwest fire crews

08:01 AM PST on Wednesday, March 22, 2006
By TIM ROBINSON / KING 5 News

http://www.king5.com

KING5.com file photo
SEATTLE - Just a week ago, Texas firefighters were battling some of the worst wildfires in that state's history. Here in the Pacific Northwest, our fire season is just around the corner. A new report out delivers some disturbing news about the readiness of some fire crews.

When a wildfire gets going, it's an extraordinarily powerful force. And the forces that fight those fires have to be powerful, too.

You might be surprised to know that many wildfire crews aren't from the Forest Service or other government agencies, but from private firms.

A U.S. Forest Service study released last week has found some disturbing problems. One third of the private crews hadn't taken the required firefighting courses. Many were promoted without adequate work experience, and sometimes, non-English speaking crews worked under English-only supervisors.

Despite the bad marks, officials say things are getting better. Even though they are firefighters from private companies, it's the Oregon Department of Forestry that oversees the majority of private U.S. crews.

Officials say they are making improvements by focusing on more training. Officials are also increasing enforcement. They took nearly 100 administrative actions against private firms last year.

Officials say they've used less private companies over the past two years because the past couple of fire seasons have been slower.


http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/ ... be481.html


Report says private firefighting crews inadequately trained

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...ecrews22m.html

By Craig Welch

Seattle Times staff reporter

Private firefighting crews from the Northwest are being sent to battle wildfires with improper training that is often led by businesses with financial motives to cut corners, a three-year internal investigation by the U.S. Forest Service has concluded.

The number of private companies in Washington and Oregon that provide firefighters for blazes in the West ballooned in recent years from a few dozen to several hundred. But state and federal agencies have not been able to make sure they can safely fight those fires, according to the report released Tuesday.

From 2004 through 2005, the Forest Service investigators found that nearly a third of the firefighters they reviewed had not taken required courses, had been promoted without adequate work experience or had few or no training records. In other cases, entire crews of firefighters spoke only Spanish but were sent to fires where commanders spoke only English.In many cases, training for these crews was overseen by contractors who made more money the faster they sent people to fire lines.

The Forest Service findings mirrored a Seattle Times report in 2003 that found private businesses were breaking rules, falsifying or selling training credentials and giving bogus fitness tests to get crews to the fire lines quickly. One company paid undocumented workers 50 cents each for two weeks of firefighting. Some private crews endangered themselves and other firefighters by arriving late, skipping safety briefings or drinking and taking drugs.

As the Forest Service report was released Tuesday, fire officials maintained that they have made improvements. "We're recognizing we initially weren't managing this program particularly well," said Neal Hitchcock, deputy director for fire and aviation for the Forest Service's National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. "What's changing for us, though, is we're really starting to do internal reviews."

Hitchcock said federal agencies now do more checks of training classes, inspect records more rigorously before awarding contracts, and are arranging with community colleges to assess prospective firefighters' English skills.

Rod Nichols, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Forestry, which oversees the bulk of the country's private crews, said his agency stepped up enforcement, taking nearly 100 administrative actions against poor-performing crews last year. And because the past two fire seasons have been slower, fewer companies have been involved in firefighting.
But he and other officials also acknowledge that some changes — a system to review firefighters' training records and better monitoring of those conducting the training, for example — won't be completed until after this summer's fire season.

"We're expecting higher performance, but, of course, all bets are off if we have a severe fire season," Nichols said.

Craig Welch: 206-464-2093 or cwelch@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company



These private firms are hired by federal and state government. This is our taxdollars at work here.