PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona commission that oversees workplace safety blamed the state's Forestry Division on Wednesday for the June deaths of 19 firefighters, saying state fire officials knowingly put protection of property ahead of safety and should have pulled crews out earlier.
The ruling by the state Industrial Commission came after its investigative agency, the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health, released its findings and recommended citations and financial penalties. The commission levied a $559,000 fine.
The ADOSH report was a stinging rebuke of an earlier investigation commissioned by the Forestry Division, which found that state fire officials communicated poorly but followed proper procedures when 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots were killed in a blaze near the small community of Yarnell northwest of Phoenix.
All but one member of the crew died June 30. The Hotshots were trapped as the flames they were battling changed direction in a fierce thunderstorm. The Arizona State Forestry Division oversaw the fight against the blaze that sparked on state land.
The ADOSH investigation found that state fire officials lacked key personnel to battle the Yarnell Hill Fire at critical times. Marshall Krotenberg, the safety agency's lead investigator, told the commission there should have been officers to ensure firefighters' safety, a planning section chief and a division supervisor, who wasn't replaced after he abandoned his post.
