On Wednesday, federal agents checked the IDs of two private contract firefighting crews that had been working the Bear Gulch fire on the Olympic Peninsula.
The operation included the U.S. Border Patrol, Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. Border Patrol alleged two of the firefighters entered the country illegally.
It was an unusual scene for federal agents to check the immigration status of firefighters on an active wildfire, with crews working in a remote location. The 44 firefighters were interrogated as a Red Flag Warning, indicating increased fire risk, went into affect in the area.
The action received swift backlash from elected leaders across the Northwest.
What happened?
Before the confrontation, the contract fire crews had been sent up to the northeast side of Lake Cushman. The Incident Action Plan, a document outlining firefighting activities of the day, assigned the crews “to a Community Hazard Reduction Project.” They were told to cut wood for the community.
Among the firefighters was Michael Kerwin-Smith, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
While they were waiting for their division supervisor to arrive, he said, federal law enforcement showed up in unmarked vehicles. It felt like a setup, he said.
The agents asked the crews to line up to check their IDs.
Kerwin-Smith said he felt racially profiled for having dark skin. He said he had heard reports from other tribal members who had federal officers ask them for IDs, but he didn’t think it would happen to him.
The firefighters were interrogated and held at the site for about three hours, Kerwin-Smith said, while some were ordered to leave.
Firefighters were shaken.
“The people that they detained were my really good friends, and one of them was even a role model,” Kerwin-Smith said. “I don’t know what they’re going through. But it just sucks.”
The agents identified two people who were in the U.S. illegally, the release said, and they were taken to a detention facility in Bellingham.
What do we know about the firefighters?
Federal officials have not named the two firefighters.
Isa Peña, director of strategy for Innovation Law Lab, the law organization representing one of the firefighters who was detained, said the firefighter was arrested unlawfully. Innovation Law Lab staff attorney Rodrigo Fernandez-Ortega said on Thursday they had been searching for their client since Wednesday afternoon.
Border Patrol said in a news release they had been asked to assist U.S. Bureau of Land Management agents with the operation, which had preceded a criminal investigation.
What about this criminal investigation?
Federal officials have not released any additional information about the reported criminal investigation. Border Patrol and Bureau of Land Management officials have not responded to requests for comment for more detail.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Woods, a spokesperson for the office, said the office wasn’t prepared to comment on the arrests.
Many questions remain unanswered about the incident, including whether businesses or firefighters are targets in the criminal investigation, and whether the investigation was connected to the arrests.
The contractors were identified as ASI Arden Solutions Inc. and Table Rock Forestry Inc.
Table Rock crew boss David Diaz was with his crew when the federal agents arrived. He said in an interview Thursday that no one from his crew was detained in the incident.
Diaz said he hadn’t participated in any criminal investigation, and nobody from his crew was cited or charged, but they were kicked off the fire.
Border Patrol said in the release that BLM asked the agency, because of the “remote location of the work site,” to assist in “verifying the identities of all personnel present.”
What’s happening with the Bear Gulch fire?
The Bear Gulch fire is the largest wildfire in Washington state. More than 300 personnel are working the fire. It’s burning in remote areas of the Olympic National Park and surrounding forests, often in steep terrain.
For the most part, the fire is being allowed to burn in these areas where firefighters cannot safely access.
The fire is the biggest on the Olympic Peninsula since 1951, said Jeff Bortner, a fire management officer representing both Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest.
“Generally, our fires are within the natural range of variability,” Bortner said of fires on the east slopes of the Olympics. “The current Bear Gulch fire is testing that theory a little bit because it’s certainly bigger than anything in the historical records.”
This part of the forest gets an average of about 100 inches of rain each year. That, coupled with long periods without fire, means a lot of dense fuel is available for the flames, compared with drier areas.
Climate change, materializing in drought, drier fuels and higher temperatures will likely fuel more of these smaller west side fires, said Crystal Raymond, deputy director of the Western Fire and Forest Resilience Collaborative, a research group.
As of Friday morning, the Bear Gulch fire has burned over 9,000 acres and is 13% contained.
