Gordon Graham here again, and thanks so much for taking the time to read my little corner of this great site. For those of you that have not been here before – and for those of you I have not yet been fortunate enough to meet – my life focuses on the management of risk; thus the title for this column – " Risky Ramblings."

Let me start off this piece today with a name out of the past – and simultaneously a name in the news this week. Raise your hand if you know who Chandra Levy was. It was just about eight years ago that I first heard her name. She was a beautiful young woman found murdered near our nation’s capital. The circumstances of the murder came to light this week, and finally an arrest was made of some punk with a history of sexual offenses who is currently serving time in California for similar crimes. With great sadness (because I am a dad), I watched her parents on the television this week talking about “closure” and “grateful” and “now we are at peace” and marvel at how kind they are. While I have never been in their shoes, I don’t think I would handle the event as well.

But eight years ago, the focus of the investigation was not on some criminal alien; the focus was centered on the activities of a Congressman from California, Gary Condit. And I will spare you the details, but nearly every day there was his picture in the news and all the surrounding rumors regarding his possible involvement with Ms. Levy and in this heinous crime. The fervor grew and grew, and then suddenly no one cared about Ms. Levy or Mr. Condit anymore. That fateful second Tuesday in September of that year (2001) became the lead story, and that date has changed all of our lives forever. And all of a sudden the “Chandra Levy” story died just as she did.

So here are four more names from 2001: Jessica Johnson, Karen FitzPatrick, Devin Weaver, and Tom Craven. Some of you recognize them, and many of you do not. On July 10, 2001 these four young Americans – in fact, great young Americans – perished in an event known as “The Thirtymile Fire.” And, indeed, their deaths made the news; but they were soon to be forgotten and replaced in the news by 19 Islamic terrorists and some 3,000 Americans. And now, there is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of that terrible day.

Occasionally I think of the four people I mentioned in the above paragraph. I never met any of them, although I hear some rumors that they may have been present in a class I taught to federal firefighters prior to their deaths; but I cannot say that I remember them from any program. Sometimes when I am talking to friends in the United States Forest Service, I will think of them because these friends had some involvement in the training of these people and the investigation of their deaths. 

Three of the four deceased were relatively new to the wildland community. The event – The Thirtymile Fire – was for them a high-risk, low- frequency event. If you have been to any of my programs over the last 30 or so years, you know my “concern” about this family of event. People involved in such a task lack “memory markers” and “behavioral scripts,” and oftentimes this lack of experience works against them. So I was of the thinking for years that the “cause” for this tragedy was their inexperience.

One of the four, Tom Craven, was in fact of respected veteran of wildland operations; and by all accounts a gentleman of the highest order. He too perished on that day, and I was led to believe that his death was caused by his “unselfish” action of trying to rescue the three newer kids from the “major rager” 30 miles from Winthrop, Washington. And for seven or so years, I was happy in my belief that I knew what caused their demise.

But I had a ton of bricks dropped on me last week when I received a book in the mail from Amazon – a book I did not purchase but which was sent to me as a gift from a dear friend, Chief Gerry Kohlmann (Retired).

John N. Maclean, son of Norman Maclean of Young Men and Fire fame, penned a work about this terrible tragedy and properly titled his work The Thirtymile Fire, with a subtitle of A Chronicle of Bravery and Betrayal. And indeed it was.

As I prepare this piece, I have an internal conflict whether I should cite examples out of the well researched and patently honest work by Mr. Maclean or should encourage you to get to the library or Amazon ( or my newest toy, the Amazon “Kindle” electronic book downloader — I will report on that when I get familiar with the tool) and read it yourself.

After some thinking, I am going with the latter. My words will not be adequate to explain to you how wonderful these four young people were and why they decided to become wildland firefighters. My inability to write as skillfully and fervently as Mr. Maclean will do disservice to their lives. And my limited skills could in no way describe July 9 and 10 – from the notice of the “call out” to the screams that ended their lives and continuing past their deaths into the investigations, allegations, misinformation and everything else that occurred after the fact. You will have to read it yourself.

Two decades ago I obtained an old wooden boat that has given me so much joy over the years. I named this sturdy craft Never Forget. I was raised by two great parents and my dad was a big fan of the concept “Never Forget.” If you know me, I take this two- word phrase very seriously – sometimes too seriously. But there are some things I just cannot forget. I know this statement has become ubiquitous after September 11, and we should “Never Forget” the 343 firefighters who perished that day at the hands of radical Islamic terrorists.

Also, let us “Never Forget” Jessica Johnson, Karen FitzPatrick, Devin Weaver and Tom Craven. And after you finish the book – I hope that you “Never Forget” how they perished, and not just the proximate cause – the fact that they burned to death – but the root causes:  problems lying in wait that people knew about or should have known about and did nothing about up front.

As you read this book – and I know that many of you are not in the wildland community – ask yourself, “What lessons can be learned from this tragedy so that we will never behave similarly in your fire department?”

Anyhow, my thanks to Chief Kohlmann for the book. It opened up some sad memories, but having the ability and willingness to learn from mistakes of the past is the foundation for most risk management.

I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did. Until I see you again – or until our next meeting on this Fire Nuggets site, I wish you health and happiness; and please take the time to work safely.

For Gordon Graham video tapes, click here.

Seminar information can be found within Gordon Graham's website at www.gordongraham.com

Risky Ramblings Index

Translate this site: