Thirtymile Fire

Thirtymile Fire
Date(s)	July 10, 2001
Location	Okanogan National Forest, Okanogan County, Washington, United States
Impacts
Deaths	Four, plus one severely burned

The Thirtymile Fire started as an escaped picnic cooking fire on July 9, 2001, on the Okanogan National Forest in the state of Washington. On the evening of July 9, the Libby South Fire was already burning 50 miles (80 km) to the south, and this fire exceeded 1,000 acres (4.0 km²). To the north on the Thirtymile Fire, four firefighters were killed in the fire:Tom Craven, Karen FitzPatrick, Jessica Johnson and Devin Weaver. Some people do not believe that enough disciplinary action was given to the fire supervisors.

Origins of the Fire

Those responsible for abandoning the campfire that started the fire were never identified. High temperatures, low humidity, and severe drought conditions combined to allow an abandoned cooking fire to grow into a huge and fatal fire.

The Thirtymile seemed at first to be a very controllable fire, and fire managers assigned a crew of 21 firefighters, estimating that the fire would be contained by nightfall. However, the temperature on the day of the blaze was nearing 100 degrees, and the fire was spreading fast. By mid-afternoon, the crew watched the fire crawl up the slope on the opposite side of the valley, and they called in for more help.

Firefighting Difficulties

The area where the fire had started was not within a designated wilderness, but was located in a Forest Service-designated special-study area. The fire's location caused communication difficulties regarding the firefighters' request for helicopter support because of confusion over the legality of dipping water from a "protected" river. Details of the helicopter dispatch issues are explained in author John N. Maclean's book The Thirtymile Fire.

"... the firefighters proceeded to break most all of the Forest Service's cardinal 10 Standard Fire Orders, failing to do everything from posting lookouts to identifying escape routes. Trapped when the fire began burning across the only road out of the area, the crew was not prepared for the suddenness with which it arrived," the Forest Service's accident report states. "A rain of burning embers was followed by a rolling wave of heat, fire , smoke, and wind." As the crew members frantically tried to deploy their portable fire shelters, the fire overtook Karen FitzPatrick, 18; Jessica Johnson, 19; Devin Weaver, 21, and squad boss Tom Craven, 30 — asphyxiating them in heat so intense that it transformed a pickup truck into a pile of molten aluminum."

In 2001 the U.S. Forest Service released the Thirtymile Fire Investigation Report.

See also

Oakland Hills Fire

Wildfire

Natural Hazards

Wildfire suppression

2000-2001 fires in the western United States

United States Fire Administration