Storm King survivor remembers tragedy’s lessons

Sunday marked 20 years since the deaths of 14 firefighters in the South Canyon wildfire in Colorado, including nine young men and women who were part of the Prineville Hotshots, an elite Forest Service firefighting crew based in Central Oregon.

Many of those who survived have helped the Forest Service study what went wrong that day, leading simulations of how the tragedy unfolded on the slopes of Storm King Mountain, to help a new generation of firefighters avoid a similar disaster.

Alex Robertson joined the Prineville Hotshots when he was in college. After surviving the South Canyon fire, Robertson decided to continue firefighting; today he works on fire season preparation and management for the Forest Service in Central Oregon. He is among five survivors of the tragedy that went on to have long careers in firefighting.

Robertson was 23 years old on July 6th 1994, the day the South Canyon Fire blew up. He remembers strong winds fanning what had been a relatively slow-moving grass and brush fire into a wall of flame. The fire swept up a steep hillside in just two minutes, overtaking some of the crew that was fighting it. Robertson remembers the roar of the flames and a scene of chaos.

He was among 35 people who survived. Some made their way to a burned out area and deployed fire shelters, others successfully followed an escape route over a ridge top and down into a canyon. Robertson says the five men and four women from his Prineville Hotshot team who died were tremendous individuals who each had something unique to offer.

“Their sacrifice that day, I do believe has led to a lot of lives being saved because of the lessons that were learned,” he said.

Robertson says he doesn’t think the tragedy was a result of a single bad decision, but rather many small failures that added up.

He says today, as a result of changes that happened after the South Canyon Fire, communication flows more freely up and down the ranks of Forest Service fire crews, and members are encouraged to speak up if they see signs of danger, instead of waiting for their commander to make a decision.

“There was a lot of trust in the managers to not only know everything, but to see everything. Now, we run crews so that even if the newest guy out there sees something that doesn’t make sense, they need to communicate that,” he said.

That lesson resonates with Eric Miller, the current superintendent of the Prineville Hotshots, who has studied the tragedy by watching YouTube videos produced by another survivor, Eric Hipke. “If you’re uncomfortable with something, we need to hear it,” Miller said.

A Forest Service investigation into the South Canyon tragedy also found that the firefighters were not adequately briefed or warned about the weather, and that no one working on the fire was aware of a red flag warning indicating the potential for a rapid increase in fire activity that day.

Alex Robertson says today, in part thanks to new technology, firefighters are better informed about weather and fuel conditions and have access to much more detailed data.

“Remote automated weather station data is at your fingertips with a smartphone. Back then, you relied on someone to gather the data and give it to you. Today a firefighter can just go get it,” he explained.

Roberson says he thinks that if the firefighters fighting the South Canyon wildfire had access to that kind of detailed forecast information 20 years ago, it might have saved their lives.