[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 102 (Wednesday, September 6, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H7243-H7244]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO FIREFIGHTERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Tancredo). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Idaho (Mr. Simpson) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank the men and women who 
have been selflessly fighting fires throughout the western United 
States this summer. Unfortunately, I have the distinction of 
representing the district that has, what I am told, the largest fire 
and the most acres burned in the United States. The Clear Creek fire 
alone covers an area of over 200,000 acres, outside of Salmon, Idaho, 
an area one-third the size of the State of Rhode Island. It is but one 
of many that have been burning throughout Idaho and the western United 
States.
  I was fortunate that I was able to spend 2 days on the fire lines and 
in the camps with the men and women who have been heroically fighting 
these catastrophic fire. I saw firefighters on the line in the smoke 
and ash. I met with support crews in the camps who cook, provide 
firefighting supplies and equipment, make maps all night long in 
preparation for morning briefings, and the men who run the showers so 
that the firefighters can have a basic semblance of normalcy, a hot 
shower after 16 hours on the fire line. That is what it comes down to 
for front-line firefighters, food, a hot shower, and, if they are 
lucky, a little sleep.
  Many of the firefighters and support personnel are wives and husbands 
who have left their families in other areas of the country for weeks at 
a time. I met one woman from Missouri who worked at a Forest Service 
district office there. She was running the commissary. It is the people 
on the front lines and behind the scenes working together that help to 
contain these wild fires, with some help from Mother Nature. Without 
their dedication, perseverance, and individual sacrifices, many more 
lives, structures, and wildlife habitat would have been lost. Their 
commitment and dedication is unsurpassed, and they are the best in the 
world.
  Spending a couple of days in the fire camps and on the lines, I 
picked up a few things from the people who are at the ground level. One 
is obvious, and we have been discussing it for years.

[[Page H7244]]

We have to manage our forests. They are in an unhealthy state, with the 
Forest Service's own estimate placing 40 million acres at high fire 
risk. I saw the high fuel loads; lodgepole pines so thick it looked 
like toothpicks had been dropped from the sky, and the high levels of 
brush on the ground.
  We need to find a way to restore many of our forests to a more 
healthy, natural state that includes managing prescribed burns and 
thinning. We may not agree on every aspect of getting to that natural 
state, but we can find common areas that we can agree on; that fuels 
reduction is better than fuels feeding these catastrophic fires in our 
forest. The old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of 
cure is very appropriate.
  A well-funded fuels reduction program will pay significant dividends 
in reducing the firefighting and restoration costs over time. Think how 
far the $1 billion we are spending on fighting these fires this summer 
would have gone towards fuels reduction. We also have to come up with 
an approach to rehabilitate and restore these fire-stricken lands that 
works for all of those who are interested in the care of our Nation's 
forests.
  As I was meeting with the staff and operations managers in the fire 
camp, I also noticed something was missing. It took me a while to 
figure it out, but I finally realized that there was a lack of younger 
personnel who would be taking the place of the fire managers as they 
retire in the years to come. Recent hiring freezes and reductions in 
personnel have left a gap in the level of experience that we have 
coming up to fight future fires. Men and women who have been working 
for 20 to 30 years fighting fires have institutional knowledge about 
the dynamics and management of firefighting in these warlike 
conditions. Ensuring that the agencies have adequate funding for 
personnel in these crucial positions is critical to the security of our 
forests.
  We also need to address the current pay system that acts as a 
disincentive for experienced fire personnel to work on the lines, 
although I was pleased to hear there has been a temporary correction to 
this policy.
  Mr. Speaker, these are but a few of the things I discovered while 
spending time on the Clear Creek fire. Healthy forests and fuel 
management is an issue Congress has to spend more time discussing and 
finding answers to. My fellow colleagues, the gentlewoman from Idaho 
(Mrs. Chenoweth-Hage) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte), 
have each been seeking more proactive ways to manage our Nation's 
forests. I have asked that their respective forest committees hold a 
joint hearing to explore future avenues for forest management, 
including fuels reduction and treatment, in order to decrease the 
likelihood of a future catastrophic fire. I am hopeful this hearing 
will generate the necessary dialogue so that we can start the process 
of restoring and rehabilitating our Nation's forests.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank George Matejko, forest 
supervisor for the Salmon-Challis National Forest, who allowed my chief 
of staff and I to get a first-hand look at the fires. I also want to 
thank Tom Hutchinson, fire management officer for the Valvermo Ranger 
District of the Angeles National Forest. Tom served as the incident 
commander for the California Incident Management Team 4 that was 
managing the fire. He and Virginia Gibbons, public affairs specialist 
for the Deschutes National Forest, gave us a close look at how fire 
operations work.
  Finally, I want to thank all of those who have given their time and 
efforts to protect Idaho and the West from these catastrophic fires. 
The people of Idaho and I thank you.

                          ____________________