With 29 deaths in wildland incidents, 2003 was the deadliest year for wildland firefighters since 1994, when the Storm King Fire killed 14 firefighters in Colorado, according to a summary report of 2003 firefighter fatalities released in January by the U.S. Fire Administration.

Five multiple-fatality incidents took 16 wildland firefighters' lives last year. Eight Oregon firefighters (David Kelly Hammer, Jeffrey David Hengel, Richard Burt Moore II, Leland David Price Jr., Mark David Ransdell, Ricardo “Ricky” Martin Ruiz, Jessie Dean James and Paul Eugene Gibson, all of First Strike Environmental of Roseburg, Ore.) died in a vehicle accident as they were returning from wildland fires Aug. 24. Other multiple-fatality wildland incidents included:

• Idaho firefighters Jeff Allen and Shane Heath were killed in July when a wildland fire spread quickly and trapped them;
• Firefighter/Helitack crew membe Randall Bonito Jr. and Jess Pearce, pilot, died as a result of a helicopter crash in Arizona in July;
• Nevada-based firefighters pilot Carl Dolbeare and co-pilot John Attardo were killed in an October airtanker crash in California;
• Oregon firefighters Richard Warren Black, pilot, and David Craig Mackey, forest unit supervisor, died in a helicopter crash in October.

Among those killed, four were volunteers, four were full-time wildland firefighters, four were part-time wildland firefighters, 12 were contract firefighters and one was a career firefighter.

Wildland fatalities of 2003 also included Asst. Chief Richard James of Oran, Iowa; Asst. Chief Ralph Dawdy of Animas, N.M.; Engineer Steve Rucker of Novato, Calif.; Chief Edward Weber of Elkhart, Wis.; Mike Stanley of Salisbury, Mo.; Firefighter Richard A. Long of Gallipolis, Ohio; Anndee Mikole Huber of Newcastle, Wyo.; Firefighter Jeffrey Alan Koval of Inkom, Idaho; Inmate Firefighter Edward Giacinto Buti of Orofino, Idaho; Firefighter Stephen Leigh McGregor of Baird, Texas; Lead Forestry Technician Richard G. Lupe of Whiteriver, Ariz.; Pilot Randall L. Harmon of Grants Pass, Ore.; and Firefighter Wayne M. Mickle of Pittsfield, Mass.

Not since 1994 when 36 firefighters died in association with wildland fires, including the 14 firefighters who died on Storm King Mountain in Colorado on July 6, 1994, have so many firefighters perished in wildland incidents, the USFA said.

The USFA collects and analyzes information about firefighter deaths each year to determine trends, make recommendations for further research or to propose changes in procedures that may serve to reduce fatalities in the future. These statistics are provisional and may vary slightly as the USFA confirms information with local fire officials. The final fatality report is expected to be completed in June.

The complete Summary Report of 2003 Firefighter Fatalities is posted on the USFA Web site. At the request of a fire department training officers, the USFA began updating its summary reports on firefighter fatality notices in 2003. Both the complete 2003 summary report and monthly 2004 firefighter summary reports can be viewed at the USFA Fallen Firefighters page at www.usfa.fema.gov/applications/ffmem/index.jsp.

“The sacrifice of this nation's firefighters is heart-breakingly real, directly affecting their communities and departments — and especially the families they leave behind,” said Michael D. Brown, the Department of Homeland Security's under secretary for Emergency Preparedness and Response. “As President Bush has noted, these men and women are the front lines of homeland defense. We mourn the loss of these heroes.”