Man,What's with the Forest Circus these days.Anyone who has fought forest fires or will, take note...
Talk about lack of communication.
BOISE, Idaho � An elite federal firefighting team declined to join efforts to douse a deadly northern Idaho wildfire last week, citing safety concerns on the day before a 20-year-old firefighter was killed.
Anne Veseth, of Moscow, was killed Aug. 12 when she was struck by a falling tree while battling the Steep Corner Fire near Orofino.
The Montana-based Flathead Hotshots team refused to engage the blaze on Aug. 11 after encountering what it described as poor communication among Idaho-based firefighters, some of whom had no protective clothing or shelters. That's according to a report on SAFENET, an anonymous federal reporting system for wildland firefighters to document their concerns.
That report, dated Aug. 14, describes a chaotic scene, with a "hodge-podge" of firefighters including a crew of Idaho state prison inmates forced to dodge trees and rocks hurtling down a steep mountainside.
The inmate crew "had been chased up the hill several times due to fire below them and big rocks coming down the hill," according to the Hotshot report. "At this time a huge snag came down above us and started rolling down through the standing trees. The prison (crew boss) commented, 'That is the sound of the day.'
Jayco
