Three federal firefighters died Saturday battling a Colorado wildfire, their deaths now spotlighting the Trump administration's controversial creation of a new fire service and its return to a discredited "full suppression" policy that experts warn puts crews at greater risk. One victim worked for the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, an agency established this year without congressional approval by consolidating personnel from four Interior Department agencies. The elite helicopter crew was attacking flames on the ground near the Utah border when the fire overtook them. Five firefighters deployed emergency shelters as a last resort. Two survived with burn injuries.
The consolidation has created confusion among thousands of firefighters about chain of command and responsibilities, according to former government officials. More troubling to safety advocates: the administration's mandate for "full suppression" of new fires reverses decades of science-based policy that used controlled burns to reduce fuel loads and prevent catastrophic blazes worsened by climate change.
What Was at Risk?
Federal officials haven't released details about what the firefighters were protecting when flames overran their position. Timothy Ingalsbee, a former federal firefighter and cofounder of Firefighters United For Safety, Ethics and Ecology, asked the essential question: "Why were they attacking that fire in the first place? What was actually at risk? If it was a bunch of shrubs on remote mountaintops, what was the real risk that justified putting those firefighters at risk?"
The weekend deaths came as wildfires ignited across the West following months of dry weather and record-low snowpack. A wind-driven fire northwest of Colorado City burned more than 35 square miles and destroyed over 150 structures, including at least 55 homes, authorities said Tuesday.
Under Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's order, the Wildland Fire Service plans "full suppression" for every wildfire under its management. "Any wildfire that represents a threat to life, property, infrastructure or the environment should be extinguished as quickly as possible," federal officials told The Associated Press. They added that fire managers retain authority to select tactics based on ground conditions.
A Policy That Failed Before
Critics say the administration is fixing something that wasn't broken. The Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs and National Park Service already extinguish 98% of fires they handle. Steve Ellis, who retired as a Bureau of Land Management deputy director, warned the new agency and policy won't eliminate catastrophic wildfires caused by dense forests, residential sprawl into fire zones, and extreme weather from climate change. "Severing forest management and forest managers from fire suppression will make firefighting less safe and put communities at greater risk," Ellis said.
The two other firefighters killed worked for the Agriculture Department's Forest Service, which handles most U.S. wildfires and is also operating under full suppression. Trump wanted Forest Service firefighters included in the consolidation, but Congress blocked that portion.
Who Benefits from the Policy
The administration has been bringing in aircraft more quickly once fires ignite, said Austin Moeller, an aerospace analyst for investment firm Canaccord Genuity. "Anyone that has an air tanker benefits from this more aggressive contracting activity," Moeller said.
A chief beneficiary is Bridger Aerospace, a Montana-based company founded by U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy. Before his 2024 election, Sheehy hired lobbyists in a failed attempt to persuade Montana's Legislature to create a statewide fire service like the new federal one. Within a month of taking federal office, he sponsored a bill to codify the consolidation of federal firefighters into one agency.
Sheehy stepped away from his company during the campaign and put his Bridger assets into a blind trust, spokesman Tate Mitchell said. Mitchell claimed Trump originated the fire agency idea, but Sheehy supports it. "One of Senator Sheehy's top priorities in the Senate is using his experience to stop the catastrophic fires destroying American communities and he won't apologize for it," Mitchell said.
Bridger describes itself as one of the nation's leading aerial firefighting companies. CEO Sam Davis has said the company's fleet of Super Scooper aircraft, surveillance aircraft and fire observation technology make it "uniquely positioned" to respond to the renewed emphasis on attacking fires.
The Science Says Otherwise
The full suppression policy echoes the 1935 "10 a.m. rule" that required agencies to extinguish new fires by 10 a.m. the following day. Michael Dudley, a retired Forest Service director of fire, aviation and air management, said that old policy is why forests today are overgrown. Wildfires clear out small and dead material, but officials became so effective at suppression that forests kept growing and fuels built up. When fires hit now, they're easy to lose control of, he said.
Scientists who study wildfires say trying to stop all fires is unrealistic. Some of the most destructive recent blazes evaded all suppression efforts. Some fires grow too fast, are too remote, or result from multiple ignitions that make them impossible to stop. "The narrative that if we just try harder, we're gonna make these fires go away isn't true," said former Forest Service wildfire researcher David Calkin. "The fire paradox is not beatable: The more you make fire go away, the more fuel accumulates. The more fuel accumulates, the harder it is to make fires go away."
Confusion on the Ground
Firefighters in the consolidated agency work under newly appointed Wildland Fire Service Chief Brian Fennessy, who had served as chief of California's Orange County Fire Authority since 2018. "There's a level of confusion as everyone's trying to sort out responsibilities and who's in charge and who do you report to," Dudley said. An Interior spokesperson said Fennessy was highly respected with decades of experience managing complex fire challenges in densely-populated southern California.
Luke Mayfield, a founder of Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, said he believes the consolidation will better serve firefighters, but significant work remains to get the new agency fully running. "Everyone was aware of the potential fuel and fire conditions we face this fire season," Mayfield said. "Those conditions are surfacing and have resulted in firefighter fatalities with weather conditions that won't let up in the near future."
Why This Matters:
Three firefighters are dead implementing a policy that scientific consensus rejected decades ago. The full suppression mandate ignores what fire ecologists have learned: wildfires are part of healthy forest ecosystems, and attempting to eliminate them creates the fuel loads that make catastrophic fires inevitable. The policy shift benefits private aviation contractors while potentially increasing risks to the public firefighters on the ground. The organizational confusion from creating a new agency without normal congressional oversight compounds those dangers at the start of what experts predict will be a severe fire season. Communities in fire-prone areas and the firefighters who protect them deserve policies grounded in science and institutional knowledge, not political expedience. The deaths in Colorado suggest we're learning that lesson again at a terrible cost.