Please begin Chapter IX that is posted at the top of the home page and the Yarnell Hill page. Thanks to everyone for continuing to analyze the Yarnell Hill Fire.
Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter II supplement, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VI and Chapter VII.
Vernon Masayesva, Founder and Director Black Mesa Trust
Western science operates by taking things apart and analyzing the pieces. This reductive process has produced enormously important technological and medical advances. Because of the scientific method, Western science appears able to control the environment and provide greater human comfort, and its successes sometimes make it appear infallible.
Native science operates by observing the whole and the interaction of the parts. This method, also an organized belief system, has sustained Native peoples and cultures for millennia against nearly overwhelming odds. But, because of this world view, traditional peoples often find themselves ill-prepared to protect their own best interest. [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.
InvestigativeMEDIA’s John Dougherty was awarded First Runner up in the Arizona Press Club’s Virg Hill Journalist of the Year contest Saturday night for his reporting on the Yarnell Hill Fire.
The Arizona Republic’s Bob Ortega received top honors for the state’s most prestigious journalism award. Evan Wyloge of the Arizona Capital Times was named second runner up.
“I’m delighted and honored for my one-person news operation to have been named a finalist for this award competing against major daily and weekly newspapers,” Mr. Dougherty said.
“Congratulations to Mr. Ortega for winning top honors for his excellent work on immigration issues and Mr. Wylodge for his important reporting on lobbying at the state Capitol,” he said.
The contest was judged by three out-of-state judges including Kathy Best, editor of the Seattle Times, Brad Schrade, a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Mark Katches, editorial director for the Center of Investigative Reporting in Berkeley, Calif.
Mr. Schrade described Mr. Dougherty’s work as “powerful, aggressive reporting. Dougherty’s determination to get at what went wrong raised accountability questions about the events that led to the Yarnell Hill fire tragedy. His immersion in the story produced significant information on a major state and national story.”
Mr. Dougherty, 57, has won the Virg Hill honors three times and has been named first runner up on three occasions.
Please start Chapter VII here:
Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter II supplement, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V and Chapter VI.
