Feds to Examine Station Fire Response Next Week

Pasadena - A congressional panel investigating the early response to the Station Fire that scorched thousands of acres in and around the Angeles National Forest and killed two firefighters will convene in Pasadena next week.

The panel, organized by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, was originally expected to meet in early September, but its session was delayed when Congress was called back into session.

The panel will meet at 9 a.m. Oct. 12 in Courtroom Three of the Richard H. Chambers U.S. Court of Appeals Building, 125 S. Grand Ave.

"The goal is to hear from representatives of the Forest Service and other responding agencies, as well as outside experts and critics, to shed additional light on firefighting procedures and techniques, how they were applied during the Station Fire, and how they should be revised to improve outcomes in the future," Schiff said in a statement.

Invited speakers include William Derr, retired Forest Service employee; Don Feser, retired Angeles National Forest fire chief; Duncan Baird, a homeowner with the Vogel Flats Fire Recovery Alliance; Jody Noiron, forest supervisor, Angeles National Forest; Will Spyrison, retired division chief, Angeles National Forest; and John Tripp, chief deputy of emergency operations with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Also invited to speak are Tom Harbour, director of fire and aviation management, Forest Service; Bob Cavage, president of Wildfire Research Network; David Gillotte, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 1014; Casey Judd of the Federal Wildland Fire Service Association; and P. Michael Freeman, chief of the L.A. County Fire Department.

The Station Fire broke out Aug. 26 last year, burned until mid-October, and became the largest blaze in the history of the Angeles National Forest and Los Angeles County.

The fire burned 250 square miles, destroyed more than 200 structures, including 89 homes, wiped out the community of Hidden Springs, and killed two Los Angeles County firefighters trying to protect their mountain camp.

In August, Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, along with Schiff and four other Southland congressional representatives, called for a federal investigation into the firefighting response to the Station Fire.

The elected officials sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office in early August, requesting the GAO perform "a full and complete accounting of the events surrounding the response to the Station Fire Incident from its inception on August 26, 2009, until its containment on October 16, 2009."