Agencies blamed for hampering fire crew
A lack of communication and coordination, coupled with a rivalry between state and federal fire agencies, left members of a firefighting crew in last summer’s Mendocino Complex Fire trapped and then running for their lives, according to a report on last summer’s conflagration, the largest in the state’s history.
The report paints a chaotic scene deep in the Mendocino National Forest, three weeks into the fire when 22 firefighters were surrounded by flames after the wind shifted as they burned off vegetation to help stop the fire’s spread. Most of the firefighters were able to get to their vehicles and flee, but six were forced to run through an unburned area for a mile before they were picked up.
Some tripped, fell or were caught up on debris as they ran from approaching flames through thick smoke that turned the daytime skies dark as night. At least one thought they wouldn’t make it out alive, the report said.
“Man, this is where we are going to die,” the unidentified firefighter is quoted as telling investigators. “This is how it ends.
We are going to be vaporized.”
None of the firefighters in the Aug. 19 incident was killed, but the six who had to run for their lives were injured.
The report released Friday by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the U.S. Forest Service and the Los Angeles Fire Department, focused on what happened that day because the firefighters’ lives were endangered.
Firefighters on the ground, in the air and in command centers described several hours of pandemonium that began when they were sent from a base camp in Ukiah into a remote area to set controlled burns. They said they were hampered by poor radio communication, long drives and general confusion about their strategy and mission.
“What are we doing? Why are we burning? What are our escape routes? I have a really bad feeling. This is not good,” the report quotes several firefighters as thinking.
Confused and choking on thick smoke, the 22 firefighters from the Los Angeles department and Cal Fire were forced to flee when the winds shifted and flames shot up around them. Two of the six injured firefighters were taken by helicopter to hospitals — one for a shoulder injury, the other for burns. Four were admitted to hospitals for less severe burns. They were treated and released.
The incident occurred as the Mendocino Complex, made up of two fires in Lake County, grew to about 384,568 acres combined in their third week. At the same time, the Carr and Ferguson fires were burning in other parts of Northern California, leaving resources limited.
With firefighting ranks thinned, Cal Fire and the U.S. Forest Service had earlier decided to break from tradition and jointly manage the Mendocino Complex firefight. But the plan didn’t always go well, the report concluded.
“The Cal Fire-Fed rivalry was evident on this fire, and I believe it was a detriment to the operational tempo and production,” one firefighter said.
Investigators blamed neither agency, but said the conflicts created inconsistent communication, added unnecessary bureaucracy and duplicated efforts, hampering firefighting efforts and endangering firefighters. The overall effort to stop the Mendocino Complex Fire, which erupted in late July and wasn’t fully contained until mid-September, was complicated by dead spots that made radio communication impossible.
Long drives by firefighters and inconsistent directions as well as logistical difficulties presented by as many as 4,000 firefighters from dozens of different agencies led to confusion and poor communication, the 34-page report said.
Several firefighters were critical of decisions made in the Aug. 19 incident but were afraid to speak up at the time out of a fear of reprisal, or of looking foolish or offending their supervisors, the report said.
The Mendocino Complex Fire eventually consumed 459,123 acres and 280 structures. A Utah firefighter died when he was hit by a tree knocked over by a heavy load of flame retardant dropped from a plane.
The firefighting effort drew from 34 different agencies, including fire and law enforcement departments and utilities, the report said.
Neither the U.S. Forest Service nor Cal Fire commented on the report’s findings.