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ODF pitches battle against contractors, drugs By Sean Wolfe Ashland Daily Tidings The fire on Ashland's Grizzly Peak last summer might not have spread so far, so fast, if fire crews had shown up on time. That's the speculation of some Oregon Department of Forestry officials who are now interested in hiring oversight staff to clamp down on safety violations, drug use, and tardiness on contracted fire crews. It's the first time ODF has said publicly since the late 1980s that fire contractors that supply work crews to assist in controlling wildfires are a source of concern. "This is the first time I've seen it go public," noted ODF Dispatch Supervisor Terri Frazier. Frazier, who has been with ODF for the past 18 years, said that 2002 marked the beginning of a massive crackdown on fire crews. "You have drug violations, controlled substance issues, arrival times, falsification of training records. It's happened in the past - oh, yes. But we haven't cracked down on them like we did last year. Quite a few (companies) got whacked for safety issues," Frazier said. One company penalized was Keizer, Ore.-based BP Reforestation. Last summer, three crews arrived eight hours late to the Grizzly Peak blaze, officially known as the East Antelope fire. A 32-day suspension was meted out to the tardy crews. The East Antelope fire erupted on August 13, torching 1,886 acres. Roughly 160 firefighters fought the then-200-acre wildfire late in the day, and officials said they hoped to control the blaze by the following day. But warm weather and high winds crushed those hopes, and the fire then engulfed nearly 1,600 acres before crews achieved containment on August 19. At its peak, 531 firefighters battled the blaze. Frazier said that had crews arrived in a timely fashion, the battle against the fire might have gone differently. "If we could have gotten the manpower on it earlier, it might have been a different story. But that's just speculation," Frazier said. While fire crews are already monitored in the field, according to Bill Lafferty, ODF's Fire Program Director, the agency wants additional personnel to coordinate agency findings, administer contracts and give feedback to contractors. "What we lacked was someone back at the office to gather all those things from the field and give guidance back," Lafferty said. Now ODF is seeking the funds to hire the necessary personnel. "What we will actually have on board is a contracting services section, which will have two procurement people, plus an office support person. These people will receive information, and set up or assign others to do monitoring functions," noted Ed Daniels, Director of Wildfire Training and Certification for ODF. "As crews are used and questions arise with regards to compliance, then we'll be doing administration that could involve investigations. We'd be looking into things ranging from showing up late to the fire, to sexual harassment, to the use of controlled substances, sleeping on fire lines, or not having documentation or qualifications," Daniels said. Spot checks on fire contractors recently uncovered found untrained men sent to fires with falsified training records. At least 15 fire crews were suspended for various reasons during last year's fire season, according to agency records. According to Daniels the problem with contractors has stemmed from the late 80s, when the system was first instituted. "The '87 fire season saw a lot of fires in Southern Oregon. And the agency hired people off the streets and formed them into crews. We had so many injuries and work compensation claims, that our insurance premium jumped from $300,000 a year to over a million. Risk management was telling us that next year, we'd see it climb to $3 million. That's when we developed the contract system," Daniels said. Bruce Ferguson, president of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the National Wildfire Suppression Association, said that since that time there have been growing pains. The contract firefighting industry has expanded from fewer than 100 crews in 1998 to more than 270 last year. Oregon is home to most of the 20-person fire crews in the United States. A 2002 ODF document awarded contracts to 60 contractors throughout the state - plus a handful from British Columbia - that will work in the 2003 fire season. "The industry was going broke in 1999. We've made decent money since then due to hellacious fire seasons," he said. "So everybody and their brother is going to fight fires," Ferguson said. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -