After firefighting deaths, advocates alarmed by ‘deepening wildfire crisis,’ agencies’ strategies

Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of the group Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, wants to know to what extent that suppression policy informed the five-member Rifle helitack crew’s assignment battling the Gore and Knowles fires in southwest Colorado. 

Ingalsbee, an ecologist and former firefighter, said the full-suppression approach reverses a longtime, science-backed strategy of allowing fires to burn in some further-removed areas to keep forests healthy, which also prevents crews from taking unnecessary risks.

“I’m pretty anxious about tragedies yet to happen, because we still have the same policy, blindly attacking all fires, instead of strategically, wisely managing and prioritizing fires,” Ingalsbee said.