Following the burnover deaths of three wildland firefighters near the Utah-Colorado border last weekend, a top federal fire official has strong words of warning ahead of Independence Day – the single biggest day for human-started fires.
Echoing the concerns of other local and state officials, U.S. Wildland Fire Service Chief Brian Fennessy expressed deep concerns about fireworks at a press conference this week regarding the firefighter deaths.
“Any human-caused fires, we have to minimize or completely eliminate those because we have enough trouble with the natural-caused fires,” Fennessy said in response to a question from Colorado Public Radio.
Prior to the weekend’s tragedy, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox ordered emergency statewide firework restrictions through the federal holiday.
It’s not about “big government,” Cox said, defending the measure. “This is like life or death stuff.”
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Boise State Public Radio, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio and KJZZ in Arizona as well as NPR, with support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
