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The investigative report on the deaths of the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots in the Yarnell Hill Fire will be released on Saturday.
Fire officials have insisted that everyone with questions wait until this report comes out, but it looks like that report is unlikely to answer the questions everyone’s been asking.
See also:
–Yarnell Hill Fire Report to Be Released This Weekend
In New Times’ recent cover story, “Lambs to Slaughter,” reporter John Dougherty cited a former Hotshot who actually got out of the business due to these investigations:
William Riggles, a 12-year member of the Smokey Bear Hotshots based in New Mexico, states in a an e-mail that he got out of the business in 2008 because accident investigations “never criticized any” management decisions.
Riggles says “facts changed” during investigations, and “what’s worse, everybody keeps their mouths shut and babbles the official story.”
Then, just a few days ago, the Arizona Republic chimed in with an entire article dedicated to how factual this report will be.
From the Republic:
State officials refuse to say whether a report on the Yarnell Hill Fire tragedy, scheduled for release in coming weeks, will adhere to national guidelines that call for investigators to conceal causes of the accident and ignore wildfire safety standards in their analysis.
Then what’s the point?
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Follow Matthew Hendley on Twitter at @MatthewHendley.
