Yarnell residents still trying to sue state
Yarnell residents still trying to sue state
22 September 2016
published by http://www.trivalleycentral.com
USA PHOENIX Comparing the states firefighting actions to Keystone Cops, the attorney for Yarnell residents who lost their homes in the 2013 blaze wants the Court of Appeals to let them sue the state.
At a hearing Wednesday, David Abney acknowledged it may be an open question of whether the Forestry Division, which was initially battling the fire on state land, had an obligation to protect the residents of the community.
But Abney said the agency, which was coordinating various local, state and federal efforts, voluntarily took on that duty. And having done that, he told the judges, it had an obligation to do it right.
Abneys arguments have so far failed to get his clients their day in court.
Last year, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Richard Gama threw out their lawsuits. He concluded that the state, in fighting the fire on public lands, had no duty to specifically protect Yarnell residents and their property.
On Wednesday, attorney Brock Heathcotte who represents the state, asked the appellate judges to uphold Gamas ruling. He said the state cannot protect everyone who chooses to live adjacent to the state-owned wilderness.
But the risk can be spread to the people who choose to live in the urban-wilderness interface, he said.
They have the ability to form fire districts to protect their homes, Heathcotte told the judges. They have the ability to insure their homes. They certainly have the ability to fireproof their homes.
Abney did not dispute any of that.
If the state had not been there, then the people of Yarnell would have taken extensive measures to protect themselves, he said, things like emergency removal of rubbish, soaking the ground with water, and removing portable propane tanks which exploded and spread the fire.
But he said that the residents were entitled to rely on the states assurance it would fight the fire and protect Yarnell and that it would do it competently.
If they had know that the state, all this flurry of activity by the state, was simply just nonsense, Keystone Cops instead of actual acts to protect them, they would have cleared out of there and, Im sure, some of them would have stayed and fought to the end to protect their property, he told the judges.
What the appellate judges finally rule will have implications beyond the affected Yarnell homeowners.
It will set precedent for the states legal obligations and liability in future cases where it is fighting blazes. And it even could spill over into other disasters like floods.
The fire that started with a lightning strike on state land destroyed more than 120 homes and resulted in the deaths of 19 firefighters.
Abney said theres plenty of evidence that the Forestry Division botched the job evidence he will get to present to a jury only if Gamas decision is overturned.
Under questioning from Judge Peter Swann, Abney conceded that the state is not required to have unlimited resources to be able to protect all people, all property and the wildlands from all risk. But he said there is an obligation to manage the existing resources in a way that is not negligent, which is what the state completely failed to do here.
Quite frankly, its a miracle that no civilians were killed in all of this, with the late evacuation and the fire moving as fast as it was toward the end, all of which we alleged was predictable, Abney said.
This litigation is separate from lawsuits filed by families of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. It was settled last year for just $50,000 for each of the 12 families who sued; the original claim was for $220 million.
But family members said that lawsuit was never about the money but instead learning what happened and ensuring there is not a repeat. Several of the families put what they got into a special fund to conduct independent investigations on fatalities, injuries, equipment and technology in wildland fires.
