[ACT] L. A. Times: "Station fire victims call for U.S. probe into Forest Service's response"

[Gaboon]

*Available for cross post
FYI. Thanks to the neighbor who forwarded the following article.




Station fire victims call for U.S. probe into Forest Service's response
Residents are critical of the agency's decision to scale back an  
attack on the blaze on the night before it began to burn out of  
control. Two firefighters were killed in the wildfire.

By Paul Pringle
September 29, 2009

Neighbors in La Canada Flintridge watch as hills nearby burn Aug. 30  
in the Station fire. The U.S. Forest Service is criticized for its  
decision to scale back response. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Big Tujunga Canyon residents and others reeling from the Station fire  
called Monday for a federal investigation into what they termed a  
poor initial response to the deadly blaze by the U.S. Forest Service .

"It was beyond irresponsibility, beyond neglect," said Cindy Marie  
Pain, who lost her Big Tujunga Canyon home to the fire, which broke  
out in the Angeles National Forest on Aug. 26.

Pain and other residents said they were outraged by a Times article  
Sunday that reported the Forest Service had underestimated the danger  
posed by the fire and scaled back an attack on the flames the night  
before the blaze began to rage out of control.

"When it's small, that's when you jump on it," said Bronwen Aker, a  
Vogel Flats resident who set up a website, www.angelesrising.org, for  
fire victims.

Her home was spared, but those of many of her neighbors were destroyed.

"A lot of residents are incredibly embittered about the way it was  
handled," Aker said.

Bob Kerstein, who lost a cabin and a house on gold-mining property  
that his family owns in the forest, said Congress should investigate  
the Forest Service's tactics.

"It's crazy what happened here," he said. "There are a lot of heroes  
in this -- the firefighters who were on the line. But the people who  
should be held accountable are the people who made the decision not  
to put the fire out in the 48 hours after it started."

Leo Grillo, an actor who runs an animal sanctuary that was threatened  
by the blaze, said any investigation should also examine the lack of  
a more aggressive air assault later in the fire, especially when it  
appeared to have flagged on Day Five.

"They had the golden opportunity to put it out and they didn't," he  
said.

The Times reported that the Forest Service had been confident that  
the fire was nearly contained on the first day, and the agency  
decided that evening to order just three water-dropping helicopters  
to hit the blaze shortly after dawn on its second day -- down from  
five on Day One, documents and interviews show.  The Forest Service  
also prepared to go into mop-up mode with fewer firefighters on the  
ground, according to records and officials.

Early in the morning on the second day, the Forest Service realized  
that three helicopters would not be enough and summoned two more  
later in the morning, Angeles Forest Fire Chief David Conklin said.  
More engine companies and ground crews were also deployed, but it  
would prove too late.

On Day Two, the Los Angeles County Fire Department lent the Forest  
Service a heli-tanker but denied a request for another smaller  
chopper -- an action that residents say should be reviewed. Chief  
Deputy John Tripp, the No. 2 official in the county department, said  
he withheld the second aircraft because he did not believe the fire  
was endangering neighborhoods near its suspected ignition point above  
La Cañada Flintridge, and because the county must hold on to some  
helicopters for other emergencies.

The Station fire would become the largest in the county's recorded  
history, blackening more than 160,000 acres of the forest, destroying  
dozens of dwellings and killing two county firefighters who died when  
their truck fell off a mountain road.

Conklin and Tripp told The Times they probably will change their  
procedures so that the two agencies immediately stage a joint assault  
on any fire in the lower Angeles.

Several foothill residents have expressed suspicions that the Forest  
Service let the fire burn early on as a way to clear dry brush, and  
that the decision not to bring in more aircraft and firefighters for  
the second morning was based on cost concerns. Forest Service  
officials have said both notions are false.

On Monday night, residents packed a Tujunga meeting hall to ask fire  
officials if more could have been done to save homes. The gathering  
became contentious at times. Tripp said the county did the best it  
could without putting firefighters' lives in jeopardy. "If anybody  
thinks we take this lightly, we don't," he said in an emotional  
voice. But Rob Driscoll, whose Vogel Flats home burned, was not  
satisfied. "We're angry and we need better answers than we've gotten  
tonight," Driscoll said.

paul.pringle at latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-station- 
fire29-2009sep29,0,2604294.story


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