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08-18-2008, 03:20 PM
By JESSE McKINLEY
The New York Times
CENTRAL POINT, Ore. — Scott Charlson never dreamed of becoming a firefighter. But when a job on a fire crew came calling earlier this summer, Charlson, a budding sportswriter and a college student, jumped at the chance to make some quick but hard-earned cash.
"That was his main goal in going out there," said his brother, Jake. "To get money for school and to buy himself a new car."
That never happened. Charlson, 25, died earlier this month when a helicopter ferrying fire personnel over a Northern California forest crashed, killing nine aboard and injuring four. Charlson, a student at Southern Oregon University, and the other victims were eulogized here Friday during a somber ceremony that spoke to both the ever-present dangers of firefighting and the changing complexion of its workforce.
Seven of the dead were privately contracted firefighters — none older than 30 — working with the company Grayback Forestry, a large and respected private firefighting company. An eighth victim, a pilot, was employed by Carson Helicopters, another well-regarded private firm specializing in firefighting. Only one of the deceased was an employee of the U.S. Forest Service.
Such a mix is not uncommon. Faced by a series of intense fire seasons and increased demands on firefighters nationwide, the front line of many blazes is increasingly a public-private partnership.
"The public always assumed that there was some private presence, but I don't think they know that we cut line right next to hotshot crews," said Jess Wills, the operations manager at Firestorm Wildland Fire Suppression, a for-profit company in Chico, Calif. "We're out there firefighting right next to them."
The federal government has long used private contractors for support, including showers, tents, catering, bulldozers and water trucks. Aviation, in particular, has been an area in which federal officials have depended on the private sector, said Marc Rounsaville, the deputy director for fire and aviation at the Forest Service.
What has changed, however, is the number of so-called "hand crews" working on the ground and often in proximity to fire, cutting fire breaks and putting out spot fires, just as the Grayback team was before the Aug. 5 crash.
Rounsaville says the increase in private hand crews is due in part to fewer federal timber crews in the field. Such crews, who do a variety of tasks including reforestation and preparation for timber sales, are also used to help fight wildfires when they erupt.
But as the Forest Service's timber harvesting declined, so did the number of crews.
The result was the miniboom over the past decade in the number of contractors, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, where the decline in the lumber industry has also robbed many communities of jobs.
Today, the National Wildfire Suppression Association, a trade group for private contractors based in Stayton, Ore., counts more than 200 members, representing more than 10,000 firefighters, with nearly 100 companies in Oregon alone. Some community colleges offer classes in firefighting, complete with on-the-job training in which students cut fire lines, slash brush and lay fire hose over steep terrain.
Debbie Miley, the wildfire association's executive director, said that about 75 percent of the nation's contract resources come out of the Pacific Northwest, "even higher than that for ground crews," she said.
Because many fire assignments for contractors were initially awarded because of proximity to fires and the company's price, such rapid growth initially also led to some unscrupulous operators, said Rod Nichols, an information officer with the Oregon Department of Forestry.
"At one point we had more than 300 crews, and so we had companies that would claim dispatch locations that didn't exist," Nichols said. "One of the contracting officers would go out to inspect a location and it would be a parking lot, or a restaurant."
But in 2006, the Pacific Northwest Wildfire Coordinating Group, an association made up of federal and state fire agencies in Oregon and Washington, began ranking crew companies bidding for government contracts on new criteria, including performance and safety records.
California, another fire-plagued state, also has so-called best-value contracts for hand crews, and other regions have similar stipulations for private contracts on water trucks and fire engines.
Miley said her trade group had pushed for the changes in contracts, and the winnowing out of shady contactors.
"You're getting a change from quantity to quality," Miley said.
Exactly how much is spent on ground crews varies from year to year, depending on the extent of fires; in 2006, considered a bad year for wildfires, about $87 million in federal and state money was spent on crews, water trucks and engines, according to the Forest Service.
Casey Judd, business manager for the Federal Wildland Fire Service Association, an employee association representing federal firefighters, said he would prefer to see more money put into beefing up federal resources rather than into private pockets. That said, he understood why private companies could do very well at a time when fire season seems to get longer and longer.
"When someone's facing a wildfire, and their property is impinged on, they don't care about the cost and they don't care what agency," he said.
from: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008120455_firefighters18.html
The New York Times
CENTRAL POINT, Ore. — Scott Charlson never dreamed of becoming a firefighter. But when a job on a fire crew came calling earlier this summer, Charlson, a budding sportswriter and a college student, jumped at the chance to make some quick but hard-earned cash.
"That was his main goal in going out there," said his brother, Jake. "To get money for school and to buy himself a new car."
That never happened. Charlson, 25, died earlier this month when a helicopter ferrying fire personnel over a Northern California forest crashed, killing nine aboard and injuring four. Charlson, a student at Southern Oregon University, and the other victims were eulogized here Friday during a somber ceremony that spoke to both the ever-present dangers of firefighting and the changing complexion of its workforce.
Seven of the dead were privately contracted firefighters — none older than 30 — working with the company Grayback Forestry, a large and respected private firefighting company. An eighth victim, a pilot, was employed by Carson Helicopters, another well-regarded private firm specializing in firefighting. Only one of the deceased was an employee of the U.S. Forest Service.
Such a mix is not uncommon. Faced by a series of intense fire seasons and increased demands on firefighters nationwide, the front line of many blazes is increasingly a public-private partnership.
"The public always assumed that there was some private presence, but I don't think they know that we cut line right next to hotshot crews," said Jess Wills, the operations manager at Firestorm Wildland Fire Suppression, a for-profit company in Chico, Calif. "We're out there firefighting right next to them."
The federal government has long used private contractors for support, including showers, tents, catering, bulldozers and water trucks. Aviation, in particular, has been an area in which federal officials have depended on the private sector, said Marc Rounsaville, the deputy director for fire and aviation at the Forest Service.
What has changed, however, is the number of so-called "hand crews" working on the ground and often in proximity to fire, cutting fire breaks and putting out spot fires, just as the Grayback team was before the Aug. 5 crash.
Rounsaville says the increase in private hand crews is due in part to fewer federal timber crews in the field. Such crews, who do a variety of tasks including reforestation and preparation for timber sales, are also used to help fight wildfires when they erupt.
But as the Forest Service's timber harvesting declined, so did the number of crews.
The result was the miniboom over the past decade in the number of contractors, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, where the decline in the lumber industry has also robbed many communities of jobs.
Today, the National Wildfire Suppression Association, a trade group for private contractors based in Stayton, Ore., counts more than 200 members, representing more than 10,000 firefighters, with nearly 100 companies in Oregon alone. Some community colleges offer classes in firefighting, complete with on-the-job training in which students cut fire lines, slash brush and lay fire hose over steep terrain.
Debbie Miley, the wildfire association's executive director, said that about 75 percent of the nation's contract resources come out of the Pacific Northwest, "even higher than that for ground crews," she said.
Because many fire assignments for contractors were initially awarded because of proximity to fires and the company's price, such rapid growth initially also led to some unscrupulous operators, said Rod Nichols, an information officer with the Oregon Department of Forestry.
"At one point we had more than 300 crews, and so we had companies that would claim dispatch locations that didn't exist," Nichols said. "One of the contracting officers would go out to inspect a location and it would be a parking lot, or a restaurant."
But in 2006, the Pacific Northwest Wildfire Coordinating Group, an association made up of federal and state fire agencies in Oregon and Washington, began ranking crew companies bidding for government contracts on new criteria, including performance and safety records.
California, another fire-plagued state, also has so-called best-value contracts for hand crews, and other regions have similar stipulations for private contracts on water trucks and fire engines.
Miley said her trade group had pushed for the changes in contracts, and the winnowing out of shady contactors.
"You're getting a change from quantity to quality," Miley said.
Exactly how much is spent on ground crews varies from year to year, depending on the extent of fires; in 2006, considered a bad year for wildfires, about $87 million in federal and state money was spent on crews, water trucks and engines, according to the Forest Service.
Casey Judd, business manager for the Federal Wildland Fire Service Association, an employee association representing federal firefighters, said he would prefer to see more money put into beefing up federal resources rather than into private pockets. That said, he understood why private companies could do very well at a time when fire season seems to get longer and longer.
"When someone's facing a wildfire, and their property is impinged on, they don't care about the cost and they don't care what agency," he said.
from: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008120455_firefighters18.html