NJFFSA16
05-01-2002, 02:45 AM
From the AP Wires:
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - A dispute over timber harvesting on public
lands has effectively squelched U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell's efforts
to require independent investigations of Forest Service firefighter
deaths.
It's unfortunate that Congress has passed up an opportunity to
ensure such investigations involve more than the Forest Service
reviewing itself, said Mariano Morales, a Yakima lawyer who has
been working with the relatives of the four firefighters who died
last summer in the Thirty Mile fire.
"I think it's hogwash," Morales said Tuesday. "The inherent
bias the agency has had and will continue to have when it
investigates itself will result in two things: a colored report
and, secondly, it will make it easier for the agency not to change
things."
Cantwell, D-Wash., said she will press the legislation in the
future.
"This decision is a setback in our efforts to reform the Forest
Service's culture in the wake of the Thirty Mile fire," she said.
"My fire safety amendment would have injected independence into
the investigations of forest fire fatalities by requiring the
inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to
investigate any future deaths of forest firefighters in the line of
duty."
The Forest Service is an agency within the USDA.
Four Naches Ranger District firefighters - Tom Craven, 30, of
Ellensburg, and Devin Weaver, 21, Jessica Johnson, 19, and Karen
FitzPatrick, all of Yakima - died last July in the Thirty Mile fire
in the Okanogan National Forest.
They were trapped along with 10 other firefighters and two
campers when the fire tore through the narrow Chewuch River canyon
near Winthrop. All four died from breathing superheated air in
their emergency fire shelters.
The Forest Service and the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration investigated the deaths, concluding that fire bosses
and managers failed to follow the 10 standard safety rules for
firefighting and ignored basic warning signs of danger.
But OSHA has no power to force the Forest Service to make safety
changes.
There have been numerous objections to the Forest Service
investigating itself, and the families of those who died have grown
increasingly frustrated with the failure of the agency to punish
anyone for the mistakes made July 10.
"There needs to be an outside objective review ... and some
form of strict disciplinary action," Morales said.
Cantwell's amendment was attached to the forestry section of the
national farm bill, but when negotiations between Democrats and
Republicans over a tree-thinning program collapsed in the
House-Senate conference committee on Monday, the forest policy
section of the bill was dropped.
Ken Weaver, whose son, Devin, was one of the firefighters
killed, said he was disappointed Congress allowed a partisan
dispute to take precedence over worker safety.
"I guess I just can't fathom that an issue such as worker
safety could be partisan. That's not a Democratic or a Republican
issue. We all have a fundamental right to minimum workplace
safety," Weaver said.
"They're really playing politics with these young kids' lives.
It shines a light on one of the things that's wrong with our
political system."
(Copyright 7999 by The Associated Press.
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - A dispute over timber harvesting on public
lands has effectively squelched U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell's efforts
to require independent investigations of Forest Service firefighter
deaths.
It's unfortunate that Congress has passed up an opportunity to
ensure such investigations involve more than the Forest Service
reviewing itself, said Mariano Morales, a Yakima lawyer who has
been working with the relatives of the four firefighters who died
last summer in the Thirty Mile fire.
"I think it's hogwash," Morales said Tuesday. "The inherent
bias the agency has had and will continue to have when it
investigates itself will result in two things: a colored report
and, secondly, it will make it easier for the agency not to change
things."
Cantwell, D-Wash., said she will press the legislation in the
future.
"This decision is a setback in our efforts to reform the Forest
Service's culture in the wake of the Thirty Mile fire," she said.
"My fire safety amendment would have injected independence into
the investigations of forest fire fatalities by requiring the
inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to
investigate any future deaths of forest firefighters in the line of
duty."
The Forest Service is an agency within the USDA.
Four Naches Ranger District firefighters - Tom Craven, 30, of
Ellensburg, and Devin Weaver, 21, Jessica Johnson, 19, and Karen
FitzPatrick, all of Yakima - died last July in the Thirty Mile fire
in the Okanogan National Forest.
They were trapped along with 10 other firefighters and two
campers when the fire tore through the narrow Chewuch River canyon
near Winthrop. All four died from breathing superheated air in
their emergency fire shelters.
The Forest Service and the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration investigated the deaths, concluding that fire bosses
and managers failed to follow the 10 standard safety rules for
firefighting and ignored basic warning signs of danger.
But OSHA has no power to force the Forest Service to make safety
changes.
There have been numerous objections to the Forest Service
investigating itself, and the families of those who died have grown
increasingly frustrated with the failure of the agency to punish
anyone for the mistakes made July 10.
"There needs to be an outside objective review ... and some
form of strict disciplinary action," Morales said.
Cantwell's amendment was attached to the forestry section of the
national farm bill, but when negotiations between Democrats and
Republicans over a tree-thinning program collapsed in the
House-Senate conference committee on Monday, the forest policy
section of the bill was dropped.
Ken Weaver, whose son, Devin, was one of the firefighters
killed, said he was disappointed Congress allowed a partisan
dispute to take precedence over worker safety.
"I guess I just can't fathom that an issue such as worker
safety could be partisan. That's not a Democratic or a Republican
issue. We all have a fundamental right to minimum workplace
safety," Weaver said.
"They're really playing politics with these young kids' lives.
It shines a light on one of the things that's wrong with our
political system."
(Copyright 7999 by The Associated Press.