Can we hold managers accountable while praising the rank and file?
That’s the question we’re facing as the Tamarack Fire makes the transition from raging inferno to a 100-square-mile black smoldering plain, and our residents begin to clean up what used to be their home in the forest.
The 1,500-some firefighters, who brought the fire to heal with some help from Mother Nature, did a great job in a hard situation these last two weeks.
The job they were handed was literally on fire when they arrived, and they rose to the challenge.
We’ve already recounted the history of the Tamarack Fire’s humble beginnings. A lightning strike, that likely occurred on July 3 set a tree on fire, which was first reported the following day.
Typically, another thunderstorm would come along and douse the fire, and everything would be fine.
But this year has been anything but typical. With both the East Fork and Beckwourth fires blazing away, you’d think that forest managers would take the easy win and dump a couple of buckets of water on it when it had spread to a quarter-acre a week later.
There’s no indication that managers took the fire smoldering away seriously. The real tell here was 10 miles away where the Henry Fire had been managed for nearly three weeks for forest health at the time. The Stanislaus National Forest had 80 firefighters working the blaze, building line and conducting helicopter drops. When despite the attention, that fire tripled in size over two days, that should have been a warning that the Tamarack Fire could pose more of a danger.
We believe that fire is a valuable tool, whether managing the forest or an irrigated field. It’s not the tool that’s the problem, it’s how you use it.
In the case of the Tamarack Fire, we can’t tell there was anything like management.
The Alert Wildfire System operated by the University of Nevada, Reno, Seismology Lab has scores of cameras scanning the Sierra Nevada, designed to catch fires early.
What’s the point of all those cameras, if the folks receiving the information don’t do anything as a result?
On this 34th anniversary of the Acorn Fire, we support our firefighters more than ever. That’s why it’s important to review the management process that placed so many of them in harm’s way.
