Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter II supplement, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VI, Chapter VII, Chapter VIII , Chapter IX, Chapter X, Chapter XI, Chapter XII , Chapter XIII, Chapter XIV, Chapter XV, Chapter XVI, Chapter XVII, Chapter XVIII, Chapter XIX, Chapter XX, Chapter XXI, Chapter XXII, Chapter XXIII, Chapter XXIV and Chapter XXV.
© Copyright 2018 John Dougherty, All rights Reserved. Written For: Investigative MEDIA
**
** THE PFINGSTON / HARWOOD PODCASTS ( CONTINUED )
**
** BRIAN FRISBY IS TALKING TO OTHER HOTSHOT CREWS
** ABOUT WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AT THE YARNELL FIRE.
Apparently, Blue Ridge Hotshot Superintendent Brian Frisby is sick and tired of beiing told he can’t discuss what he knows ( and has ALWAYS known ) about the Yarnell Hill Fire.
According to Deborah Pfingston and former GM Hotshot Doug Harwood… Frisby spoke to an entire California Hotshot crew just last summer about what REALLY happened in Yarnell, and whatever he told them was enough for them to realize the SAIT investigation was a total FARCE.
In their ‘introduction’ to their PODCAST Episode 8, published just 5 weeks ago on April 24, 2019, Harwood ‘reads’ an email they received from one of the firefighters on this Hotshot crew that Frisby spoke to.
Our Investigation, Our Truth
What Happened to the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshots
PODCAST Episode 08: Your Changes, Our Changes
Published: April 24, 2019
https://anchor.fm/our-truth/episodes/Episode-8-Your-Changes–Our-Changes-e3qqcb
Episode 8, Part 1
+0:48
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Doug Harwood: We have a comment from a firefighter on a Hotshot crew in California. He says…
“My crew was lucky enough to work with Blue Ridge last summer. On one of the slow days the Blue Ridge supe ( Brian Frisby ) took time to speak to our whole crew about the events of that day. Between THAT conversation, and listening to your podcasts, I’m appalled by the FAILURE of our original investigation. Not only was it an injustice to the perished firefighters, it’s a disservice to our current firefighters as well. How are we supposed to learn ANY lessons from the tragedy if we don’t know exactly what happened?”
Doug Harwood: We want to thank that firefighter for his message.
Deborah Pfingston: Yes. Thank you so much.
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And just for the sake of completeness…
Here again is that EMAIL that Joy Collura obtained showing Blue Ridge Hotshot Superintendent Brian Frisby officially telling U.S. Forestry Service ‘Human Factors Specialist’ Joseph Harris that the “human factors” at the 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire were defintely “off the charts”… and much of what happened that day HAS been “swept under the rug”…
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From: Frisby, Brian H -FS
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2016 10:08 AM
To: Harris, Joseph R -FS
Subject: Human Factors!
Good morning, Joe,
It sounds like you have had the opportunity to go through the Yarnell Hill staff ride and may have some questions about some of the human factors that contributed that day. Talking to ( Redacted ) it sound like the picture that is being painted is very different than what we remember. I have been invited to the operational staff ride on the 26th and 27th of this month, unfortunately any input is probably too late.
I can tell you that the human factors that day were off the charts.
We both know that the overall decision to leave the black was made by ( Eric Marsh ) but there was so much that went on that day that has been swept under the rug that may have affected the outcome.
I would love the opportunity to talk to you about it, I believe there is a lot to be learned from this event and if we are going to adopt this as an agency we need to get this right. Anyhow hope you and your family are doing well and I hope to hear from you. Thanks.
( USDA Logo ) ( U.S. Forestry Service Logo )
Brian Frisby
Blue Ridge IHC Superintendent
Coconino National Forest, Mogollon Rim Ranger District
p: 928-477-5023
c: ( Redacted )
bfrisby (at) fs.fed.us
8738 Ranger Road
Happy Jack, AZ 86024
http://www.fs.fed.us
( Twitter Icon ) ( Facebook Icon )
Caring for the land and serving people
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Oh yeah…I remember why I started down that road yesterday, I was giving a real world example to make the point that just like Shawna Legarza and Mike Dudley, I was offered the very same thing that they were offered to betray all of my values and morals as well.
But I can prove I am NOTHING like they are by the simple fact that I spent the first half of my career as a rock star and the entire second half never being promoted again. And that is because when I stood at the very same crossroads that they did, I choose the path they didn’t take. I found the hill that was worth dying on. They never did…fuck them and everyone like them.
Legarza and Dudley are really bad people who are putting wild land firefighters at an increased chance of dying on the line today because they failed to do the Right Thing. Legarza on the Battlement Creek Fire Disaster Staff Ride and the other management whore Dudley…who failed to do the right thing on the Yarnell Hill Fire Disaster Staff Ride. Like I wrote yesterday…they are both despicable human beings.
Oh…and one more thing. There is something I can do for the kids on the fire line today even though I failed to convince Legarza and her posse of sycophants and enablers that they needed to do the right thing for the kids on the fire line today.
I can tell them that the bodies of those hotshots who laid on the steep slope of Battlement Mesa surrounded by the brightly colored flagging that fluttered in the gentle breeze and bright sunshine on that beautiful day with clear blue skies…were really charred and blackened corpses who we referred to as crispy critters.
So…you shouldn’t ever be like them. No fuckin’ wildfire or shot of adrenaline is worth dying for…you should always go home to those who love you instead.
You guys know that JD moved us up to a new chapter, ey. Maybe not …
I carried over several of the Chapter XXVI posts on the YH Fire Staff Ride
( https://www.investigativemedia.com/please-begin-yarnell-hill-fire-chapter-xxvii-here/ )
No…I didn’t know. But that actually begs a very interesting question. Does it matter? That isn’t intended to be a flippant question. I would like to know what you think? Does it matter?
Gary, you are the genuine person and nothing to fear for people that listen or read your comments. unless they are phoney. You will always stand the hero you are in the fire fighting profession–your comments and instruction will save many who will listen. Those that balk at wisdom are also those that perish and make disaster for those such as the young GMHS victims.
Some say they went willingly along with the dictates of Marsh and Steed and those commanding from above. Yet they would say they had the trust in the abilities of those that commanded them to their deaths. Sadly the young trust commanders such as we saw at Yarnell, yet their trust would destroy them and cause insufferable turmoil and heartbreak to the families and loved ones involved. Many broke down and cried as Zack Ashoor said he did in the bar when he heard the news. Maybe the heartbreak killed him, he died a young 29 soon after the ordeal. . I too had shed my share of tears and heartbreak for the situation, eventhough I had never personally known or associated with any of them. Zack did. Those who could not understand the magnitude of killing 17 young wild land fire fighters and the death of their bosses as well would not understand how all suffered from this event.
Even with all the awards given and the cover ups and support for a few that did not want the truth out, it does finally come down to the importance of continued hammering at those that have hidden the facts. Page after page of facts have been redacted and hidden. And certainly it has maintained the good image of the wild land fire fighting profession. And indeed there would be above 90% deserving the image. Yet to deny the truth that caused the Yarnell GMHS deaths is at the peril of lives of future wild land fire fighters.
Since I had a son that also died an untimely death similar to the carelessness that I saw at Yarnell, I can only applaud those men and women that have steadfastly revealed the facts and reasons for those deaths. Certainly WTKTT, Gary, RTS, Hondo, Woodsman, Jd,, Norb, Joy and many others here have educated me with facts and I am grateful knowing that the people that need to know will know the actual reason their loved ones were killed.
Respect is one thing but Respect of the truth is the only way to Heaven Mr. Hall or anyone that had anything to do with the Yarnell Fire of 2013 and the Tenderfoot Fire at Yarnell of 2015.
Reply to Robert the Second (RTS) post on May 1, 2019 at 9:53 pm
>> RTS said…
>>
>> The reason that the Yarnell Hill Fire is not included on the Fireline Leadership
>> website and in that list is because it was an Arizona STATE Wildland Fire. All the
>> others are Federal fires.
>>
>> That is what the AZ Forestry Bill Boyd and OMNA International say…
And you BELIEVE them?
I thought you were smarter than that.
From PDF page 111 of the 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire Special Accident Investigation Report ( SAIR )…
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While the City of Prescott hosted the Granite Mountain IHC, it is CLEAR they were exclusively hired and trained as an Interagency Hotshot Crew. They operated within a much larger system, that of the NWCG where local, State and Federal firefighting agencies come together as part of the nation’s wildfire response.
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From the actual Yarnell ‘wrongful death’ settlement agreement…
NOTE: These ‘actions’ were non-negotiable. It was the COURT saying what MUST be done…
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Page 11 of 11 – Settlement Agreement and Release
USDC CV-14-02308-PHX
APPENDIX-A
What ASFD WILL do:
1. After all litigation is concluded, including appeals, ASFD will meet for a full day (8 hours) with the GMIHC families and their consultants/experts to review data and information and to answer questions posed by the families and their consultants/experts. Counsel for the State Forester and the survivors shall be present. To the extent possible,questions will be submitted in writing 2 weeks in advance of the meeting. This will be a facilitated learning process, and Forestry will provide a facilitator to assist with this experience. Plaintiffs may request that specific individuals from ASFD and others who were present during the Yarnell Hill Fire attend.
2. After all litigation is concluded, including appeals, ASFD will request a Lessons Learned product regarding the Yarnell Hill fire.
3. After all litigation is concluded, including appeals, ASFD will request that NWCG create a staff ride for the Yarnell Hill fire and will make its personnel and information it has collected available. In addition, ASFD will recommend that family members of the GMIHC crew be included in the process of developing the staff ride, and that NWCG review how this Fire relates to the Common Denominators in Fatality Fires and figure out if there is a common thread.
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“ASFD will request that NWCG create a staff ride for the Yarnell Hill fire”
They did that ( as the court ordered them to do ).
The NWCG agreed… and ‘split no hairs’ about it being a STATE fire versus a FEDERAL one.
NWCG hired their usual staff-ride-development partner ‘Omna International’ to help the NWCG create the court-ordered Yarnell Hill Fire staff ride.
Omna International then, in turn, did their job and worked with NWCG to create the Yarnell Hill Fire Staff Ride documents, curriculum… and executed on the plan.
To this day… ( and even at this moment )… ‘Omna International’ considers the Yarnell Hill Fire Staff Ride that they developed FOR the NWCG to be one its premier accomplishments, along with the FOUR other wildland fatality Staff Rides they developed FOR the NWCG… and it is listed as such on their own website.
ALL of the ‘Staff Rides’ listed below, that were done by Omna International FOR the NWCG, are in the NWCG’s current ‘Library’ of staff rides… EXCEPT for the Yarnell Hill Fire Staff Ride…
https://www.theomna.com/events.html
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Mann Gulch Fire Staff Ride
South Canyon Fire Staff Ride
Dude Fire Staff Ride
Thirtymile Fire Staff Ride
Yarnell Hill Fire Staff Ride
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I repeat… no one ‘split hairs’ about it being a STATE versus FEDERAL thing when the Yarnell Hill Staff Ride WAS developed by the NWCG.
It is/was ALREADY DONE, and the end product was ALREADY “FULLY ENDORSED” by the NWCG.
From the NWCG Leadership site’s own ‘About our Staff Rides’ page…
https://www.fireleadership.gov/toolbox/staffride/index.html
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The Staff Ride
The intent of this resource is to provide a library of information on significant wildland fire events.
The NWCG Leadership Subcommittee is the sponsor for this resource.
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Keyphrase: “a library of information on significant wildland fire events.”.
Nothing about STATE versus FED. Only “significant wildland fire events”.
So where is the ( already done, already endorsed ) NWCG Yarnell Hill Fire Staff Ride product?
Why is it MISSING?
That is a really, really, really good question. I know that technically RTS is right and that the YHF Disaster was a state versus federal fire and I am pretty sure all of the other fires listed were federal fires.
But that is probably because no state agency has ever invested the kind of money it takes to create a staff ride before now and this one was only done because of a court order.
I would also say that RTS’ take would get more traction in my brain 🧠 if this
https://www.nwcg.gov/wfldp/toolbox/staff-ride
was a federal website run by say…the USFS. But…that isn’t the case, it is a website run by the NWCG.
And secondly, and just as important is the value that the USFS places on its relationships with its partner agency. which certainly includes all of the individual state FIRE programs.
It is also possible that the omission of the YHF Disaster Staff Ride is just an oversight and a disconnect in the NWCG between somebody and their webmaster?
But…I am going to go with HAL 9000 busted their asses and caught them playing fast and loose with doing the Right Thing, which for some reason they find it so very hard to do? I think they are trying to forget all about the YARNELL HILL FIRE DISASTER and they are counting the days until everyone else does as well.
And I’m pretty sure that if it weren’t for this blog, they would already be there except for special occasions like the 1, 5, 10, 25. 50 and 100 💯 year anniversaries that frankly won’t be remembered or cared about by very many people.
I’d love to see the NWCG have to answer to the families… who fought HARD ( and WON ) to make SURE there was a nationally-available staff ride learning product for Yarnell… and watch NWCG try to bullshit THEM about why that already-done-and-endorsed-by-NWCG product is not ‘available’ on their own public facing portal(s).
Yep. I’d love to see the NWCG have to face the families and watch what happens when they tell them they simply do NOT consider Yarnell to be a “significant wildland fire event”, as per their own published criteria for staff ride products.
I think you actually nailed the truth.
The NWCG simply does not WANT anyone ‘talking’ about Yarnell on any kind of ongoing basis… and any other petty reasons they might give for NOT including the already-done-and-fully-endorsed staff ride product in their learning library are simply bullshit.
Well…here is my epiphany moment from when I woke up this morning. “The Families”