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Crew Boss Charged in Wildfire Deaths

Posted on: Thursday, 21 December 2006, 00:00 CST

By JOHN K. WILEY

SPOKANE, Wash. - The former boss of a government firefighting crew was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of four U.S. Forest Service firefighters during a 2001 blaze, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Prosecutors said Ellreese N. Daniels was grossly negligent in failing to order his firefighters out of harm's way as flames advanced on them.

He was also charged with lying to investigators in the aftermath of the tragedy, which took place near Winthrop in July 2001.

Daniels was not immediately arrested. He was scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 4.

"We intend to vigorously defend Mr. Daniels of these charges. We believe that they have no merit," said his lawyer, federal defender Tina Hunt of Spokane. "It's appalling that the government would single out one firefighter to blame the deaths of these firefighters on."

Daniels, a seasonal Forest Service employee in East Wenatchee, is no longer a firefighter. He has an unpublished telephone number and could not immediately be reached for comment.

The four firefighters were trapped in the Chewuch River Canyon with 10 other firefighters and two campers. The others were uninjured, but the four firefighters - two men and two women - died when the blaze swept over them as they set up their fire shelters on a rocky slope.

A Forest Service investigation concluded that fire bosses had ignored numerous signs of danger, repeatedly underestimated the fire and allowed their only escape route from the dead-end canyon to be cut off.

The false statements Daniels is accused of making involved whether he contacted fire engine crews when they arrived at the scene, whether he ordered the firefighters to come down from the slope and whether he told a Forest Service employee to take the two civilians into her emergency shelter, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Hopkins said.

Daniels was among nine employees reassigned after the fire, while others quit or retired. Daniels works for the Forest Service in East Wenatchee during the summer but is no longer a fire boss.

Since the blaze, the Forest Service and other wildland firefighting agencies have established minimum requirements for training and experience. The Forest Service also has worked with OSHA to re-examine safety and training policies.

A federal law passed after the deaths now requires an outside investigation of any wildland firefighting deaths.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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