They were the ‘unsung heroes’ of firefighting. Their deaths mark a grim milestone for the new wildland fire service

CNN

By Chelsea Bailey, TuAnh Dam, Alex Stambaugh, Julianna Bragg, CNN

(CNN) — Everything changed in a matter of minutes.

The wildland firefighters assigned to the Rifle County, Colorado, Helitack crew were among the first to arrive at the Knowles Fire Saturday, as the fast-moving blaze scorched the state’s western border.

As the crew began initial operations to contain the fire, an order came over the radio that would chill even the most seasoned first responder:

“Get out of there now.”

Within minutes, the crew was trapped by the flames and forced to deploy foil-lined emergency shelters, a catastrophic last line of defense.

Three firefighters – Emily Barker, 38; Nick Hutcherson, 27; and Sydney Watson, 27 – died during the burnover, according to the US Department of Interior. Two others were injured and are receiving medical care.

The tragedy marks the first deaths for the US Wildland Fire Service, a grim milestone for the new federal agency, which launched in January to coordinate firefighting efforts on public land.

But the wildfire was just one of many tearing through the region near the Colorado-Utah border that day. The blaze continued to spread over the weekend and merged with nearby fires to create what agencies have now dubbed the Snyder Fire.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said his state’s firefighting resources have been stretched to the brink after a historic drought and hundreds of wildfires. But, he noted, the most unprecedented element is the fire itself.

“We are seeing fire behavior that even our most experienced firefighters say they’ve never witnessed before,” Cox said.

The Snyder Fire is still 0% contained, according to the Upper Colorado River Interagency Fire Management unit.

And the wildland firefighters’ deaths – coming so early in the dry summer season – are a stark reminder of the extreme risk some of the country’s most underrecognized first responders are facing.

“While the wild animals and everything are running out of the woods (to escape the flames), our wildland guys are running in,” said Burk Minor, executive director of the Wildland Firefighter Foundation, which has offered resources, financial support and assistance to the families of wildland firefighters killed in the line of duty.

“But when you’re battling Mother Nature, you’re up against the elements all the time. … Bad things happen on bad days.”

A solemn salute to ‘unsung heroes’

On Sunday, the American flag-draped caskets carrying the three federal firefighters arrived in Grand Junction, Colorado.

Dozens of firefighters lined the street in a solemn salute to their fallen colleagues. The procession — with engines from multiple local fire departments — made its way from the airport to the local coroner’s office.

But Grand Junction’s cloudless blue sky gave no hint of the inferno that continued to ravage the Colorado-Utah border less than an hour away.

Drought and unusually hot, gusty winds that reached up to 60 mph over the weekend have transformed the area into a tinderbox where more than 28,000 acres have already been scorched.

Although every fire season brings new challenges, Minor said in his 30 years advocating for wildland firefighters, he’s borne witness to the realities of climate change.

Wildfires have become less common over the past decade, according to an American Burn Association study, but wildland firefighter deaths have increased, rising from 2% to 10% of all firefighting fatalities.

“In old-school fire, it just used to be a wildfire deep in the mountains,” Minor said. “Over the years – call it El Niño or global warming – our fuel conditions out there are changing.”

Now, he said, any fire has the potential to be “catastrophic.” And that carries an inherent danger – especially for wildland firefighters.

But what hasn’t changed are the men and women who dedicate their lives to battling the blazes.

Wildland firefighter crews tackle fires by living among them, Minor said, sometimes for weeks at a time. Helitack crews – like the one from Rifle County – often parachute into remote areas and help coordinate water drops to extinguish the flames. Others dig fire lines or focus on fuel reduction.

Everyone dedicates their lives to protecting public lands. But some, tragically, do not make it home. June 30 marks the 13th anniversary of the Yarnell Hill Fire in Arizona, where 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshot crew were killed in a burnover.

“All anniversaries are hard. It doesn’t matter if there’s a group of 19 or one individual, (there’s a) loss that’s felt in the wildland community and the families themselves,” Minor said.

The Wildland Firefighter Foundation maintains a monument in Boise, Idaho, as well as a Wall of Honor, which memorializes each of the fallen.

At least three more names will be added to their memorial at the end of this fire season. With hundreds of firefighters still battling blazes in Colorado and Utah, Minor said he’s hoping and praying that list does not continue to grow.

“When you say ‘firefighter,’ everybody goes right to the red truck and the cities,” Minor said. “It isn’t until there’s a column of smoke in the area and the evacuations are coming … that we start recognizing there’s wildland firefighters out there.”

“They’re unsung heroes.”

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