Wildland

Wildland fires in Arizona and Montana have led to two lawsuits being filed over the past few days. In Arizona, 160 property owners who were victims of the Yarnell Hill fire filed suit against the Arizona State Forestry Division claiming ...

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State Farm Insurance and several homeowners have filed suit against the State of California and the City of Fairfield following a wildland fire last August that destroyed 5 homes. The Marigold Fire occurred on August 27, 2013 when a fire ...

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The State of Idaho has filed suit against the parties it contends were responsible for causing the Steep Corner Fire in 2012 that claimed the life of a US Forest Service firefighter. Anne Veseth, 20, was killed on August 12, ...

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Today’s burning question: What is rarer than a fire department being a plaintiff in a lawsuit?  Answer: A plaintiff in a lawsuit being ordered to pay a defendant $30 million!!!! And note: the actual award in this case may be ...

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An editorial appeared Sunday in the Prescott (Arizona) News asking a rather sobering question:  in light of $65 million in claims against the City of Prescott and $273 million in claims against various governmental entities following the Yarnell Hill Fire ...

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A former Minnesota fire chief has pled guilty to federal arson charges. Ryan Scharber, formerly the fire chief for the City of Babbitt, pled guilty in US District Court last Friday to two charges: one count of setting fires on ...

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A settlement has been reached in the contentious public records case that evolved out of the tragic Yarnell Fire in Arizona earlier this year. On June 30, 2013 nineteen Granite Mountain Hotshot firefighters from the Prescott (AZ) Fire Department were ...

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The death of a wildland firefighter in 2012 has prompted two administrative actions by OSHA, one a $14,000 citation against the Clearwater-Potlatch Timber Protective Association (CPTPA), and the other a Notice of Unsafe or Unhealthful Working Conditions issued to the ...

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A Florida battalion chief who was terminated for, among other things, leaving a firefighting crew in the woods at the conclusion of a wildland fire, claims she is the victim of discrimination. Estero Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Jeannine Horton was ...

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Here is a story we missed a month ago when it broke – a firefighter in Green Country, Oklahoma has been disciplined for violating a rule even though his decision resulted in saving two homes in the path of a ...

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An assistant fire chief from a small town in Montana has been charged with negligent arson, official misconduct, and operating on a suspended license following a fire last April that damaged several vehicles, storage sheds, timbers, plywood, flooring, windows, and ...

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The Massachusetts Court of Appeals recently handed down a decision in the case of Holland Fire Department v. Lamountain, et al that upheld the right of an agricultural landowner to burn agricultural materials without obtaining a burning permit. The court ...

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A Los Angeles County golf course has filed suit against the US Forest Service for damage that resulted from firefighting efforts at the Station Fire in August 2009. The La Cañada Flintridge Country Club filed the suit in US District ...

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A member of the Lakota Sioux tribe has filed a claim against Sheridan County, Nebraska and the Rushville Volunteer Fire Department over severe injuries he sustained on March 7, 2012 during a prescribed burn. Bryan Blue Bird, Jr. sustained burns ...

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