INCIDENT COMMANDER CHARGED WITH MANSLAUGHTER

DECEMBER 23 -- SPOKANE, WA: In what's probably the first case of its kind, federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged Forest Service employee Ellreese Daniels with manslaughter and lying to investigators in the wake of the fatal Thirtymile Fire in 2001 in north-central Washington.

Daniels, 46, was the incident commander on the fire on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, and the 11-count criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Spokane says Daniels was "grossly negligent" in supervising firefighters on the fire. Four of them died and several others were injured.

If convicted, Daniels could spend six years in prison, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Hopkins said that's unlikely because Daniels has no criminal record. According to a Seattle Times story, his attorney, Tina Hunt, said the charges are without merit.

The 70-page complaint was filed by John Parker, a special agent of the USDA Office of Inspector General. In it, Parker states that Daniels supervised firefighters under his command "in a manner that was grossly negligent ... in wanton and reckless disregard for human life." He charges that the circumstances of the fire should have caused Daniels to foresee that his conduct might place the lives of firefighters in danger, and that that was the proximate cause of their deaths.

In numerous other counts of the complaint, Parker states that Daniels knowingly and intentionally made false and fictitious statements and representations concerning his conduct while supervising firefighters on the fire.

After the fire, an OSHA investigation determined that Forest Service supervisors had violated all ten of the Standard Fire Orders and cited the Forest Service for several willful violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The Forest Service Safety & Accident Investigation Team concluded that the fatalities were preventable and that a combination of human errors and conditions in the Chewuch River canyon that day caused the loss of life. The agency said the primary errors were the failure to withdraw the crew from the canyon when initial attack failed, which resulted in their entrapment, and the failure to ensure that the crew properly deployed shelters on the best available site.

"The consensus of experts is that all four deceased firefighters would have survived if they deployed on the road near the other crew members," says the complaint.

After the investigations, the Forest Service proposed administrative discipline and removed Daniels from the fire program. He now works at a supply cache in East Wenatchee.

The case has been referred to a grand jury, which will meet next month to decide whether to issue an indictment against Daniels.