Forest Service Cited in Calif. Blaze

By ANDREW GLAZER

LOS ANGELES – The U.S. Forest Service committed safety violations that contributed to the deaths of five of its firefighters in a Southern California blaze last year, workplace safety regulators said Thursday.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the Forest Service for nine safety violations, including failing to provide the firefighters with maps and crucial information about potentially hazardous weather conditions.

OSHA ordered the Forest Service to fix the unsafe working conditions within 15 days.

Asked whether the agency believed the violations led to the firefighters’ deaths, Department of Labor spokesman Roger Gayman said, “By implication, yes.”

A message left at the office of San Bernardino National Forest Supervisor Jeanne Wade Evans was not immediately returned.

A 90-foot wall of flame overran the members of San Bernardino National Forest Engine 57 as they tried to protect an unoccupied vacation home last October in Twin Pines, about 90 miles east of Los Angeles.

Firefighters Jason McKay, 27; Jess McLean, 27; Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20; Mark Loutzenhiser, 43; and Pablo Cerda, 23, died in the fire.

Raymond Lee Oyler, a 36-year-old auto mechanic, is charged with starting the blaze. He has pleaded not guilty to five counts of first-degree murder, and multiple counts of arson and using an incendiary device to start fires between May 16 and Oct. 26, 2006.