RUSH: A Congressman's call for an investigation into the deaths of four
Washington State firefighters,
killed while fighting a forest fire on July 10,
2001, triggered a strong, indignant response from the Truth Detector.
Rep. Scott McInnis of Colorado raised allegations
that fire-fighting helicopters may have been prevented from
getting water from certain nearby rivers because
they were "protected" by the Endangered Species Act.
"The fact is that the environmentalist wackos have grown into a political
steamroller that threatens lives,
threatens property, and threatens the American
way of life! Can you believe this? Four human beings are dead because helicopters
didn't get permission soon enough to scoop up water from a river in which
lived some protected fish!
It is a direct—don't tell me this is unintended
consequences! The people involved in formulating this kind of policy
know full well where this is going to lead—it's
their intent! The whole movement—animal rights movement,
environmental wacko movement—the whole movement
is designed to de-emphasize the primacy of human life!"
[Listen to Rush: Files /Audio 2001 / Aug 01 Firefighter
Deaths]
REALITY: To the rest of the world this was an unproved accusation, but Rush treated it as incontrovertible fact—four dead because of the Endangered Species Act. Period. But Rush was wrong. Period.
Here’s how the story started. From an August 1, 2001 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
article:
Rep. Scott McInnis of Colorado said he had "unverified" reports that
an emergency request for a water drop to
assist firefighters in the Okanogan National Forest was delayed for
at least two hours while officials examined
whether they could pull water from the Chewuch River without violating
the Endangered Species Act….McInnis,
an opponent of some aspects of the Endangered Species Act…repeatedly
acknowledged his account "is strictly an allegation." http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/33458_fire01.shtml
The first indication this allegation didn’t ring true was the improbable
amount of time that elapsed
between the deaths (July 10) and the first published allegations (August
1) that the ESA was in some way to blame.
Over three weeks. If four brave young fire fighters died because pilots
were prevented by the ESA from scooping
water from a river, the outcry from those on the scene—from the helicopter
pilots on down—would surely have
been loud and clear. And it would have been instantaneous.
The truth, of course, is not what Rush said happened. From an August 1,
2001 article in the Seattle Times:
"A nearly two-hour delay did occur that day, but not because of the
strictures of ESA," said Elton Thomas, fire-management officer for the
Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forests. "Water can be plucked from a river
without permission from
wildlife agencies during such an incident, Thomas said." http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis/web/vortex/display?slug=fishfire01m&date=20010801
The US Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed that policy in a press release:
…wildland fires represent an
emergency under the Endangered Species Act and that in no circumstances
is emergency response to be delayed or
obstructed because of Endangered Species Act considerations. U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service policy expressly states,
"Under no circumstances should a Service representative obstruct an
emergency response decision....where human life
is at stake." In the case of the Thirtymile Fire, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and National Marine Fisheries Service
officials were informed of Forest Service procedures to suppress ongoing
fires on July 10 during an interagency briefing
on local fires at the Wenatchee/Okanagan National Forest Office in
Wenatchee, Washington. The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service did not
impose any limitations on the effort to fight the
Thirtymile Fire. http://news.fws.gov/newsreleases/display.cfm?NewsID=5EA65E19-9E63-41A9-A6E880DF5E71089D
Rush Limbaugh: dangerous and specious.