Storm King plus 30: The still-evolving lessons of Colorado firestorm tragedy that claimed 9 Prineville Hotshots
Total of 14 firefighters died on July 6, 1994 when overrun by flames on Colorado mountain
PRINEVILLE, Ore. (KTVZ) – It’s somehow somewhat fitting that the close-knit community of Prineville, like much of the High Desert, was under a Red Flag Warning on Saturday, meaning a combination of extreme heat, winds and low humidity brought what forecasters call “critical fire weather conditions.”
It's the same warning that was in place three decades ago on Colorado’s Storm King Mountain, when a firestorm swept up the peak and claimed the lives of 14 firefighters, including nine young members of the Prineville Interagency Hotshot Crew. Lightning had sparked the South Canyon Fire three days earlier, and on that day, 40 mph winds whipped up a wall of flames some were unable to outrun.
It was a painful loss that shocked and rocked the small town and much of the High Desert. But the painful lessons of that day also led to changes that reduced – but of course, did not and could not eliminate – the danger that wildland firefighters face every day.
Saturday also marked the last day of National Wildland Firefighter Week of Remembrance, which also includes National Wildland Firefighting Day, on July 2, established two years ago. The week began on June 30th – which this year marked the 11th anniversary of the day that Arizona’s Yarnell Hill Fire overran and killed 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots crew.
That 2013 tragedy was the deadliest day for wildland firefighters in 80 years and the worst single loss of U.S. firefighters since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack in New York City toppled the Twin Towers.
Among the lessons from 1994's South Canyon Fire was that firefighters lost their lives running uphill, before they could deploy their emergency fire shelters -- but still carrying their tools and packs. A 250-page post-fire investigation report and other analyses said they most likely would have lived if they had dropped those items and been able to run faster, to escape the flames racing toward them.
Bryan Scholz of Bend, who was the Prineville Hotshots’ assistant boss at the time, told Aspen Public Radio recently that the fire led to improvements for firefighter safety, including standard fireline briefings and more rigorous leadership training.
“For the Prineville Hotshot crew, our briefing into Colorado and into the South Canyon Fire was pretty much non-existent – not an uncommon situation,” he said.
Prineville and Glenwood Springs, Colorado both built memorials to the Storm King 14. Prineville’s Wildland Firefighter Monument is in Ochoco Creek Park, including a winding path with plaques on boulders that tell the story of each lost firefighter: Kathi Beck, Tamera Bickett, Scott Blecha, Levi Brinkley, Douglas Dunbar, Terri Hagen, Bonnie Holtby, Rob Johnson and Jone Kelso.
The Prineville Memorial Hotshot Run, held in May, raises funds for the Wildland Firefighter Foundation.
The inherent danger of wildland firefighting means even improved training, communications, coordination and the like cannot always avert tragedies.
Since the 2013 Arizona fire, there have been four more instances when three or more firefighters were killed, according to Bryan Karchut, director of safety, fire, fuels and aviation management for the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Region.
Karchut told the Glenwood Springs Post Independent the 10-year average has ranged between 16 and 18 fatalities a year. He said it's one reason risk management has become a key factor in firefighting strategy.
Efforts to better protect firefighters have also been challenged by a notable rise in wildfire behavior, intensity and sheer size in recent years, the paper reported.
Dunbar's father, Randy Dunbar, and Blecha's father, Scott Blecha, spoke with The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction, Colorado about their memories of their sons and the inevitable what-ifs that never end.
"He's not missing in my mind," Dunbar said after a recent family gathering for his grandson's graduation. "I looked around, and I always think about Doug, and what the future would have held for him."
Blecha said, "It's hard to believe that time has flown by so quickly. We still think about Scott a lot and of course we still wonder ... what his life would have been like, if this wouldn't have happened to him."
Both men were among family and friends who planned to be at Saturday's ceremony in Glenwood Springs, commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Storm King tragedy.
