The Arizona State Forestry Division Saturday released additional video taken by Prescott National Forest firefighters during the Yarnell Hill Fire that killed 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots on June 30, 2013 in response to an Oct. 11 public records request filed by InvestigativeMEDIA.

The Forestry Division posted the videos on its website Saturday afternoon. All of the newly released videos are posted at the end of this story.

“On November 7, 2014, the following video clips were received by Arizona State Forestry through a Freedom of Information Act request to the US Forest Service,” the division stated in a press release posted on its website.

“To be transparent with the public, the videos are presented exactly as they have been received.  The redactions were done before these videos came into the possession of Arizona State Forestry,” the division stated.

An eight-minute segment of the video taken by the Prescott National Forest firefighters was released last year and contained the dramatic audio of Granite Mountain Hotshots’ desperate calls for help moments before they were killed in a ferocious wildfire.  The segment is included in the supplemental records that accompanied the Forestry Division’s Serious Accident Investigation Report into the tragedy and identified as “Exhibit A-22 HelmetCamVideo”. The supplemental records were released last winter and are posted here.

InvestigativeMEDIA learned that there was additional video taken by the PNF firefighters and filed  a series of public records with state and federal agencies for the video. [Read more…]

More that 180 Yarnell residents and business owners today filed a lawsuit against the Arizona State Forestry Division alleging that the state acted with “extreme negligence” in responding to and controlling the Yarnell Hill Fire that destroyed much of the town and killed 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots last June 30.

The lawsuit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court is the first of several expected to be filed this week as the deadline for filing lawsuits within one year of the tragic wildfire approaches.

The lawsuit provides a detailed timeline alleging the state was negligent by failing to quickly respond to the lightning-caused fire on the evening of June 28 and subsequently deploying inadequate resources to manage the wildfire after it escaped the initial attack on the afternoon of June 29.

“The Arizona State Forestry Division committed extreme negligence by entrusting management of the Yarnell Hill Fire to a low-level, exhausted, negligent, situationally unaware, inadequately experienced and overwhelmed Type 4 Incident Commander,” alleges the lawsuit filed by the Scottsdale law firm Knapp & Roberts P.C.

“What’s bothered me from the beginning is why this (fire) was not put out the first day,” says attorney Craig Knapp. “I just don’t get it.”

Knapp says Yarnell firefighters and volunteers were told to “stand down” by state forestry officials on the evening of June 28 when the fire was smoldering near the peak of the Weaver Mountains west of Yarnell.

They “should have attacked it when it was small,” Knapp says. “It takes very little resources and you can save millions of dollars and lives. They just didn’t do that.”

Knapp said his firm intends to file additional lawsuits this week including a class action suit on behalf of Yarnell residents who are not identified as plaintiffs in today’s claim and wrongful death lawsuits on behalf of families of three members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots.