Four firefighters died in a wild fire because environmental wackos denied them water

This Con Scum lie has been circulating in the demented inner circles of paranoid echo chamber hell that now is the conservative base. It was printed without vetting as an editorial in our local North County Times and written by a local elected official. Read it here:

http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/perspective/article_34c99ddd-7613-5b8a-afdf-97016d10ba42.html?mode=story

LOCAL VIEW: Incredible Fish Story shows value of fish vs. humans PLANET OF THE FISH -- A PRELUDE

by GARY ARANT -- Valley Center Water District | Posted: Sunday, October 11, 2009 12:00 am

"Tom Craven, 30. Karen Fitzpatrick, 18. Devin Weaver, 21. Jessica Johnson, 19.

According to an Associated Press report dated July 31, 2001, these young firefighters suffered horrific deaths in July 2000, fighting a fire in the Okanogan National Forest in Washington state because our government ---- no, evidently our society ---- values fish over people."

The actual truth given in the online comment section following the article. Following the post which gives an ASSOCIATED PRESS article to the correct information as opposed to MIS-represented lie and misquote of what the Associated Press said by Gary Arant above.

moldychum said on: October 11, 2009, 1:49 pm

This opinion piece is a blatant distortion of the facts.

Numerous safety mistakes were made that led to these unfortunate deaths. The crew boss Ellresse Daniels was charged with manslaughter and 11 other forest service managers were disciplined as a result. In addition to the fact that these firefighters were relative newcomers and sleep deprived, they were led into a box canyon where the fire was likely to overtake them. Other members of the crew who were on the road by the river survived under their shelters.

From the indictment -

At Daniels' direction, the crew stopped along the road, which ran parallel to the Chewuch River. But instead of preparing the crew for the worst -- that the fire would race over them -- Daniels told them the fire would burn around them, court papers allege. Meanwhile, Daniels watched as several firefighters scrambled up a rocky slope to get a better view of the fire. According to the documents, Daniels later said he ordered the firefighters down from the slope, but surviving crew members disputed that. That discrepancy is significant, according to charging papers. The heat is more intense on an upward slope, and uneven ground makes using fire shelters difficult. So when the fire raced through and firefighters dived for cover under their shelters, those on the road survived but those who remained on the slope were asphyxiated by superheated air. "The consensus of experts is that all four deceased firefighters would have survived if they deployed [shelters] on the road near the other crew members," the charging documents allege.

You should be ashamed of yourself for using these deaths in the debate over endangered fish.

Read the facts.

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/296691_30mile21.html

Crew boss charged in Thirtymile Fire
Negligence alleged; 2001 blaze killed 4 firefighters

By JOHN K. WILEY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Here is part of the article as my link does not work. I think because there is a symbol _that did not work between 296691_30mile21.html in the above link but I was able to print it just now. I don't understand what is wrong with the link, but here is the beginning of the article:

HE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SPOKANE -- More than five years after a wildfire killed four young U.S. Forest Service firefighters huddled inside protective fire shelters on a rocky slope in the Chewuch River Canyon, the man who was their boss has been charged with manslaughter and lying to federal investigators.

Federal prosecutors Wednesday announced they had filed charges against Ellreese N. Daniels, the crew boss in charge of the firefighters who died July 10, 2001, in the Thirtymile Fire near Winthrop, in north-central Washington.

"We have been wondering why it took so long (to file charges). It was starting to look like they never would," Steve Emhoff said from his home in Yakima. His son, Jason, was badly burned but survived the fire.

"I have the knowledge that my son has given me, which the families of the four that didn't survive don't have," Emhoff said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Hopkins said Daniels has not been arrested. He will be summoned to a Jan. 4 appearance in federal court here on four counts of involuntary manslaughter and seven counts of making a false statement during investigations into the fatal fire.

Daniels' attorney, public defender Tina Hunt, did not return calls for comment Wednesday. Daniels has an unpublished telephone number.

Firefighters Tom Craven, 30, Devin Weaver, 21, Jessica Johnson, 19, and Karen Fitzpatrick, 18, perished in the extreme heat of the fire inside aluminum fire shelters intended to save their lives. All were from Central Washington.

Daniels, a seasonal Forest Service employee in East Wenatchee, no longer works as a firefighter.

Hopkins said Daniels is accused of gross negligence in the deaths for failing to order the firefighters out of harm's way as the flames advanced, then making false statements to investigators with the Forest Service and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

read the rest of the article at:

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/296691_30mile21.html