{"id":18958,"date":"2026-06-30T19:02:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T19:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=18958"},"modified":"2026-06-30T19:02:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T19:02:25","slug":"as-wildfires-worsen-trump-administration-revives-discredited-policy-to-stomp-out-all-fires-quickly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=18958","title":{"rendered":"As wildfires worsen, Trump administration revives discredited policy to stomp out all fires quickly"},"content":{"rendered":"

By MARTHA BELLISLE and MATTHEW BROWN<\/strong><\/p>\n

The deaths of three U.S. government firefighters in a Colorado wildfire are casting a spotlight on the Trump administration\u2019s creation of a new federal fire service and its revival of a previously discredited policy to stomp out all wildfires quickly.<\/p>

Read more Forecasters cite \u2018dangerous\u2019 conditions as heat scorches Midwest while on its way to the East<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the killed firefighters worked for the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, created this year without customary congressional approval by drawing personnel from four agencies within the Interior Department. The victims were part of an elite, helicopter-based crew that got trapped Saturday in a fast-growing wildfire near the Utah border as they attacked the blaze on the ground.<\/p>\n

Authorities say they were among five firefighters who tried to shield themselves by deploying tentlike emergency shelters as flames overran their position. Two survivors were hospitalized with burn injuries.<\/p>\n

The consolidation of thousands of personnel into the fire service has sown confusion among some firefighters about who their bosses are and what their responsibilities should be, according to former government officials.<\/p>\n

And the administration\u2019s focus on \u201cfull suppression\u201d of new fires marks a sharp reversal from a decades-long trend toward embracing flames as a tool \u2014 to burn off old vegetation and growth that acts like fuel and lessen the risk of catastrophic blazes being stoked by a warming planet.<\/p>\n

The changes benefit private fire aviation companies that are key to hitting blazes fast.<\/p>\n

Federal officials have not released details on the circumstances preceding the weekend deaths, including the firefighters\u2019 objective at the site where they were overrun.<\/p>

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\u201cThe question is, why were they attacking that fire in the first place?\u201d asked Timothy Ingalsbee, a former federal firefighter and cofounder of the advocacy group Firefighters United For Safety, Ethics and Ecology. \u201cWhat was actually at risk? If it was a bunch of shrubs on remote mountaintops, what was the real risk that justified putting those firefighters at risk?\u201d<\/p>\n