DENVER - Federal fire managers watched a wildfire burn out of control for 40 hours and advance within a mile of Glenwood Springs this month before sending in ground crews to stop it.
They lost 29 homes, but not a single life.
That choice - homes or lives - seems an easy one. But, for years firefighters have aggressively battled fires while brushing aside safety rules, officials acknowledge.
They have sent into the flames crew members who were fatigued or had little experience. They have not identified safety zones and escape routes, endangering firefighters when blazes explode.
No more, they say.
The fires burning in Colorado provide the first evidence of change within that culture. Fire managers are employing a more cautious approach that puts the safety of firefighters and the public first.
"If there is no threat to structures or critical habitats, we will let the fire burn rather than going after it," says Cindy Souders, a fire information officer for the U.S. Forest Service in Colorado. "That is a new trend."
It comes after four firefighters were killed battling a wildfire in Washington state last July, and after 14 were killed near Glenwood Springs in 1994. It also reflects an emerging view that these fires are part of the natural life cycle of forests.
In Colorado this year, fire managers have declined to fight fires head on and adopted more defensive positions. They have also relied heavily on aircraft for fire suppression. The 136,000-acre Hayman fire marched toward Denver last week, destroying 39 structures, while crews nibbled at its edges.
"The Hayman fire was terribly windy, and to put folks in front of that would have been totally dangerous," says Forest Service spokesman Joe Walsh.
The Thirty Mile fire in the Cascade range of Washington last summer charred 10,000 acres, but already green signs of life are popping up through the ash as nature reclaims itself, said Thomas Taylor, a firefighting squad boss for the Forest Service. "If I go up there 40 years from now, there will be a forest again," Taylor says. "People are starting to realize that houses can be rebuilt and forests will come back, and that [fighting it] is not really worth it."
Taylor was one of 23 firefighters trapped behind a wall of flames when the Thirty Mile fire exploded July 10. He survived by submerging himself in a river for two hours, occasionally poking his nose above the surface for air. "It just kept coming at us, and we were being very aggressive," he says. He requested to disengage three times that day before his supervisors approved. Four of his colleagues died when they headed up a dead-end road to battle spot fires thrown off from the main fire.
The deaths prompted internal Forest Service investigations and reports, as well as new policies that were issued this spring. They include establishing clear lines of command and communication, analyzing risk factors on every fire, and increasing training in the deployment of fire shelters.
The changes also stress the 10 standard firefighting orders that have been memorized by all wild land firefighters for decades, as well as the 18 "watchout situations" to which firefighters must be alert. The difference is they are now considered strict rules. "The chief of the Forest Service issued real clear directions to all incident commanders that if they can't ensure full compliance [with the 10 standard orders] and if they haven't mitigated watchout situations, they are to disengage," says Jim Payne, the Thirty Mile fire coordinator.
"We're still going to fight fires aggressively," he says, "but we're really hammering home that we're going to provide for firefighter safety first. That's a fairly significant change."
This month, the Forest Service issued new rules on firefighter fatigue. Firefighters will not be allowed to work more than 24 hours before they must rest, and they must be off two hours for every one they work.
"No longer will we be working firefighters 12 or 16 hours, then giving them two or four hours sleep, getting them up and putting them back out," Payne says.
One leader on the Thirty Mile fire went nearly 50 hours without sleep, according to an investigation by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. OSHA also found that 10 of the 18 "watchout situations" went ignored or unnoticed, and all 10 of the standard orders were broken.
Officials are putting a greater emphasis on training after Thirty Mile and ensuring that all crews battling wildfires have had the proper training. Some volunteer crews that want to join the fight in Colorado have been held back.
"It used to be that people would show up from around the country and there was an assumption that they were trained, that they could take care of themselves," says Jim Parrott, fire chief in Pinole, Calif., whose skilled crew fought the Hayman fire last week. "That's not always true."
In Glenwood Springs last week, fire crews stood by while a trailer park burned. While that was frustrating for firefighters, they realized they could not have stopped the blaze in the crowded park, says Mike Piper, Glenwood Springs fire chief.
"We looked for escape routes, and they weren't there," Piper says. "In a trailer park, you can literally be in a firestorm right away, and your ability to maneuver and have two ways out is in question."
The caution meant crews were left to mop up around destroyed homes in the fire that scorched 12,000 acres and 14 outbuildings in addition to the 29 homes. But officials called the operation a success because no one was seriously injured.
"Our aggressiveness is tempered by huge safety concerns given the unknowns in a wildfire situation," Piper says. "Unless there's a life at risk, we're not going to risk our own lives. The cost is too great."