Editorial: Fault for Esperanza deaths rests with many - not just firefighters

By Timothy Ingalsbee
The Press Enterprise
Copyright 2007 The Press Enterprise, Inc.
All Rights Reserved

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — "People are searching through the Esperanza Fire Accident Investigation Factual Report to learn the causal factors that led to the tragic deaths of the five firefighters who were burned to death while defending a remote vacation home from an arson-caused wildfire.

The investigation determined that fast-moving Santa Ana winds drove the wildfire up a steep, brush-covered topographic "chimney," causing it to "blow up" in a pattern typical of several California wildfires that also led to firefighter fatalities.

'Overconfidence'
Much of the news media focused on the report's conclusion that human factors were the primary cause underlying the tragedy, especially the firefighters' "overconfidence," "excessive motivation to achieve their assignment" and "lack of situational awareness" that they were entrapped and standing in the path of a fire blowing up below them.

This is a routine refrain in firefighter fatality investigations: Their "can do" attitude caused them to take unacceptable risks, and they failed to follow standard procedures to ensure their safety. While the firefighters did make some mistakes in a situation that allowed no room for error, this standard conclusion - blaming the victims for their own deaths - conveniently lets other complicit human factors off the hook from scrutiny and criticism.

For one thing, land-use policies that allow homes to sprawl into fire-prone wildlands are never raised in accident investigations. The area burned by the Esperanza Fire has in fact burned several times over the past 40 years, including three wildfires that killed firefighters. Capitalizing on the vegetation clearance caused by the Esperanza Fire, vacant lots for new construction are currently for sale in the area, setting up conditions for another possible tragedy in the future.

Once homes are built in wildlands, state regulations require homeowners to manage vegetation to reduce fuel hazards around their structures. Yet government enforcement of these regulations is notoriously lax. The remote vacation home that the fallen firefighters were trying to defend was surrounded by ornamental vegetation planted by the homeowner. In fact, that home had already been identified as "nondefensible" in a 2002 wildfire protection plan Cal Fire had developed for that area. As passionate as people are to uphold private-property rights, they should be equally committed to private-property responsibility to reduce wildfire hazards.

Another human factor that gets only brief mention in the accident investigation report is that the public tolerates and even expects firefighters to take safety risks to protect private property from wildfires. In time, vegetation will regrow and homes can be rebuilt, but fallen firefighters are permanent, irreplaceable losses affecting whole families and their communities.

Extreme Fear
There simply is no piece of property worth the life of any wildland firefighter.

Perhaps the most challenging human factor underlying firefighter accidents is the public's fear of fire, which is causing firefighters to aggressively suppress too many wildfires. Sensationalistic news stories, demagogic politicians, agency and industry anti-fire propaganda, and other key opinion makers all foment in people an extreme, irrational fear of wildfires. Given the twin crises of climate change and government budget deficits, we will need to be much more strategic in selecting where and how we suppress fires - we cannot fight them in all places, at all times and at all costs.

One of the most important lessons we all should learn from the Esperanza Fire is the need for a new approach to firefighter safety that does not heap all responsibility on the shoulders of "ground-pounding grunts" and then blame the victims when accidents happen. Rather, improving firefighter safety depends on examining a broad range of human factors - including the actions (or inactions) of homeowners, developers, regulators, politicians and journalists, as well as firefighters.

"Esperanza" is Spanish for "hope." In accordance with that name, the Esperanza Fire should offer some hope that the real lesson to be learned from this tragedy is that firefighters and the public they serve all share a responsibility for learning how to work safely and live sustainably with wildland fires.

Timothy Ingalsbee, Ph.D., is the executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology in Eugene, Ore.