An initial report on the deaths of three wildland firefighters in late June sheds light on the extreme and dangerous conditions they faced.
On June 27, members of the Rifle Interagency Helitack Crew spent the morning working on two fires burning in rugged red rock country on the Colorado-Utah border. They were part of a specialized team that uses helicopters to respond to blazes, often rappelling down to the fireline.
Winds gusting beyond 50 miles per hour at times howled over bone-dry fuels itching to ignite.
Shortly after 12:30 p.m., a new blaze "exhibiting extreme fire behavior" was spotted, according to the report. Just before 3 p.m., the crew reported flames near their location. Ten minutes later, a helicopter was en route to rescue them.
But thick, blowing smoke had reduced visibility to almost zero. The helicopter pilot couldn't land. Somewhere in the smoke below – at 3:19 p.m. – five firefighters did what every wildland firefighter trains to do: they deployed and scrambled under their fire shelters, bivouac-like sacks with an aluminum outer layer that reflects radiant heat – giving them a fighting chance in otherwise unsurvivable conditions.
Three of them died on the scene. Two were evacuated with serious burn injuries. And on July 24, one of them died from those injuries.
Their deaths came amid an intense, destructive wildfire season fueled by historically low snowpacks and a record-shattering spring heat wave – worsened by human-caused climate change. In the wildfire community, it has also raised hard questions about policies and priorities.
A tight-knit community mourns
Friends, family and colleagues gathered in nearby Grand Junction, Colorado on July 5 to honor the dead.
Helitack Squad Leader Emily Barker, 38.
Crew member Nicholas Hutcherson, 27.
Crew member Sydney Watson, 27.
U.S. Wildland Fire Service Chief Brian Fennessy praised the trio for their commitment to public service. Hutcherson was an active member of the Northern Arizona Deaf and American Sign Language community, he shared. Watson was an enthusiastic solo backpacker who wanted to see more women on the male-dominated fireline. Barker was a beloved part of the Vail, Colorado women's hockey scene, and played defense for the Down Valley Divas.
"[They] represent the very best the wildland fire community has to offer," he said at the memorial, adding that they embodied the "unique spirit" of those drawn to public lands work.
"You must love wild places, and not just the beauty, but the challenge," Fennessy said. "You must be willing to travel and live in places you've never even been to. You must love the uncertainty each day and the unpredictability of the work. And yes, even embracing the chaos along the way. You must love the camaraderie of being part of a team that becomes family."
He said he was praying for the two firefighters who survived with serious injuries.
Nathan Matthews – one of those injured firefighters – died July 24, raising the death toll to four. In July, helicopter pilot Nicholas Dale was also killed in Colorado, and other firefighters have been burned in Washington, Oregon and California.
"It wasn't like, 'Oh my gosh, I can't believe these people were killed,'" Andy Jones – part of a U.S. Forest Service helitack crew based in northern Utah – told NPR in July. "It was almost kind of like I knew this was going to happen."
The extreme pre-season conditions and early summer fire behavior he saw flying over Utah's rampaging, early season blazes fed his premonition. News of the June deaths quickly spread through the wildfire community. Jones didn't know any of those killed or injured, but in the early hours there's no telling.
"It was a huge gut punch, because the fire world is small," he explained. "But then the aviation community is like an even smaller microcosm of that."
Jones said he started getting texts from fellow firefighters.
"Like, 'Hey, you're going to hear something soon. I'm OK,'" he recounted, his voice breaking.
Longtime fire veteran Riva Duncan was also on the phone after getting the terrible news, checking in on friends and colleagues.
In the wake of regular workplace deaths and serious injuries during any given fire season, Duncan said she and many in the tight-knit profession are gripped by a common dread: "We're trying to figure out if we knew them. We're trying to figure out if it's somebody that we loved."
A profession on edge
Like Jones and many other firefighters, Duncan – now the president of the advocacy group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters – has been on edge about this fire season. The reason, Duncan explains, isn't just because of the extreme weather. She said there have also been big, distracting changes, including the creation of the U.S. Wildland Fire Service in January.
"That always worries me as a fire manager because I don't want firefighters distracted," she said.
The new Fire Service is under the Interior Department, while the Forest Service is part of the Department of Agriculture. Both parent agencies gave direction to quickly put out all blazes this season. But Interior Secretary Doug Burgum went further, saying that the "default" should be working right on the edge of fires to halt them – known as direct attack.
That bothered Duncan, because direct attack can be dangerous in extreme fire conditions. She explained that some situations call for firefighters to battle flames from a safer distance – what's known as indirect attack.
This Forest Service video provides a clear overview of the two approaches.
"When I was a forest fire chief or forest duty officer, I'm not telling the firefighters on the ground if they should go direct or indirect," Duncan said. "That is the decision of the incident commander on the ground, and that is a level of micromanagement that is really concerning."
In an email response to NPR, Fire Service Chief Brian Fennessy said: "There exists no pressure by fire leadership to pre-determine the fire attack strategy."
Echoing Duncan, he said "whether to use a direct or indirect attack strategy should be the decision of the incident commander on the ground," and they are trusted and empowered by Interior leadership to make those decisions.
He also defended direct attack as an effective way to keep firefighters and communities safe, and to avoid "long-term risk to firefighters and the public from large, long-duration wildfires that were not stopped quickly."
A risky environment
Former Forest Service fire scientist Dave Calkin calls the circumstances of the late June tragedy very concerning.
"The thing that really hurt me the most was the apparent lack of values that they were protecting, and the reality of how risky that environment is," he said, citing the high winds, inaccessibility and reliance on helicopters for getting firefighters to safety.
"When confronted with extreme conditions," Calkin said, taking the "safest option possible" is the right strategy. "And that safest option is to fall back and wait for better conditions or better locations."
Chief Fennessy pushed back on Calkin's characterization, noting the fires were near the Colorado cities of Fruita and Grand Junction, as well as a heavily used recreation area. The several wildfires burning in and near the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness on June 27 merged into the ultimately 30,000-acre Snyder Fire, which forced hundreds of campers and boaters to evacuate and threatened the unincorporated town of Glade Park. It took hundreds of firefighters and some $15 million to control it.
"The impact this wildfire had despite early interagency suppression efforts speaks to the extreme risk that would have been posed by a less aggressive initial response," Fennessy said.
'The only chance we have'
For Andy Jones, with the Utah helitack crew, he's focused on keeping his people safe as fire activity increases across the country. Part of that is asking tough questions of fireline decisions.
"Why are we doing this? Is there something actually at risk here that this tradeoff becomes a little more worth it? Or are we just stopping a few more trees from burning?" he said. "I'm not going to risk getting somebody killed just so we can say that, 'Oh, yeah, we saved a few trees. Cool.'"
Jones said the public also has a role to play in keeping firefighters safe this extreme season, and seasons to come. Their handwritten signs thanking firefighters are welcome, he said, but "the best way to show their appreciation is to recreate safely in the woods," also citing firework and firearm safety.
One of the most important ways to keep firefighters safe, Jones said, is to increase the scale of prescribed fire – the intentional setting of controlled blazes to reduce fire threats and improve ecosystems. Such burning can significantly reduce the intensity and destructiveness of wildfires, many fire professionals and researchers agree. Fennessy also said prescribed fire and other hazardous fuel reduction practices are a "top priority" for his agency.
"We have to use fire, we have to use large scale fire," Jones said. "That's the only chance we have."
The federal investigation, meanwhile, into the deaths of the Rifle Interagency Helitack Crew members in late June continues. Colorado's Democratic U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper called for it to be "swift and thorough" on the Senate floor last week.
"We can't afford to wait months and months to learn lessons that could save lives right now," he said.
The U.S. Forest Service said in a statement that the agency "has expanded mental health resources, peer support, rest periods, and crisis‑response teams to support firefighters during a demanding season" and that "safety remains our highest priority."
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