On June 8th the Soldier Canyon Fire started and quickly escalated to a type one incident within just a couple of hours. Tribal fire department staff and equipment operators were on the line during initial attack and then specifically on the 10th without PPE and no red cards. The tribal fire department has the authority to respond to all fires reservation wide and take action. Once its determined to be a wildfire and BIA assumes command BIA staff are to release non red carded tribal employees as quick as possible with safety being the most important thing. To my knowledge one firefighter and one piece of equipment slipped through the cracks once the type one team took over.
On the June 10th it was discovered that a tribal fireman was still acting as a division supervisor. The type one IC was immediately notified and removed him from the line. Further, it became known that a tribal grader was also on the incident and will be getting demobed. The tribe is fully aware of NWCG rules and regulations. Due to the scale and complexity of the incident, it was an oversight that these two were missed until now. |
