Bid for better fire shelters falters

U.S. forest service delayed in creating greater protection

BOISE, Idaho — Crews who battle wildfires will have to wait at least another year before getting better fire shelters than those that failed to save 19 firefighters trapped by flames in Arizona four years ago, officials said this month.

The deaths pushed the U.S. Forest Service to speed up work to get an upgraded shelter in place this year, but the effort has been delayed a year after prototypes could not outperform the shelter developed in 2002.

It comes as firefighters are facing more destructive wildfires and the struggle to protect homes being built in or near remote areas.

“The reason there isn’t (a new shelter) is because there were no great options to choose from,” said Tony Petrilli, fire shelter project leader for the U.S. Forest Service at the Missoula Technology and Development Center in Montana.

Petrilli escaped serious injury or death by getting into a fire shelter as flames roared past on Colorado’s Storm King Mountain in 1994. His elation at surviving didn’t last long.

Within minutes, he was among the first to find the bodies of some of the 14 firefighters whose fire shelters didn’t save them. His radio message reporting the deaths rattled federal agencies and led to the development of the 2002 shelter.

The Forest Service wants to replace that shelter following the 2013 deaths in Arizona.