Yesterday I posted the link to an article announcing the semi-retirement of Mike Dietrich, the Incident Commander on the Station Fire. I didn't write anything because I was in a hurry, and because I don't know anything about this man.
However, I do know that experienced firefighters drop like flies around Jody Noiron, which could be the reason a fire on The Angeles needed to borrow a commander from the San Bernardino National Forest. And I can't help but wonder if this most recent encounter with Jody had an affect on his desire for a break from it all.
Mike Dietrich is the one that announced at the beginning of the fire that they were going to fight it "in a frugal manner" and then quickly backpedaled. This doesn't sound like the words of an experienced firefighter (resume here »), but Jody Noiron has a track record of not spending enough money on fire suppression. I imagine that Mike was just doing as he was told. Did you notice how defensive he got when the press asked "Whaddya mean, frugal"? It sounded like he didn't know what to say - probably because it didn't make sense to him either. And Jody never once came to his defense. She threw him under the bus.
Update: Be sure to read the comments...
I was at a Tujunga community meeting on Monday in which Mike Dietrich so underwhelmed the audience with his lack of knowledge and extremely poor presentation (as IFC shouldn't he know that Tujunga is the area where most of the houses burned in this fire? Did he think it was instructive to show us a bunch of slides of fire burning trees and houses?) which wasted almost 45 minutes of our time discussing the 30 days AFTER the fire burned down our neighborhoods.
ReplyDeleteThis was an outrageous and extremely insensitive affront to people who had come looking for answers to _W_T_F_ happened on Wednesday through Friday when our homes could have been saved, not the valiant effort to evacuate people after it was too late.
Although it is now clear to us that the major mistake was made on Wednesday, the day the fire started, when Scott Lowden proclaimed on TV that they were entering 'mop up' phase, we could all see how Dietrich would not and could not help matters any by taking over on Friday.
This numbskull was the least impressive of the three firemen who talked to us Monday night, and we are not surprised that the 1st 24 hours he took over is the day the fire bloomed almost ten times in size.
He may have been "thrown under the wheels" by Noiron, but a man who lists the Day Fire (which burned for three months) as a feather in his cap was probably chosen with care to be an easy scapegoat.
Thank you for sharing this. I was trying to give Dietrich the benefit of the doubt because I don't know him. But I do know what a cut-throat Jody is. And I like your angle of him being set up as a patsy; this is not beyond Jody's ethics.
ReplyDeleteThe more I look into the problems on our forest, the more disappointed I get. Even some folks I like may be implicated in corruption, or shenanigans at least.
I have been trying not to pick on everyone in the Forest Service, but I am acquainted with Scott Lowden, and the most impressive thing about him is his giant mustache. I can't tell you how many time he 'promised' fuel reduction operations at Chantry Flat and in Big Santa Anita Canyon; but, again, a lot of that goes back to Jody.
In the The Greatest Good, a documentary on the first 100 years of the Forest Service, they describe themselves in the old days as 'the Marine Corps of public agencies' - that they had a can-do attitude. I don't see it on The Angeles anymore. I think it died entirely a few years ago when they put George Geer behind a desk.
Just read this recently and I have to agree with the others. This is a nice man but has absolutely no operations background. He consistantly tried to be funny in front of the cameras when peoples lives and property fell victim to his incompetance. Someone needs to check his past record as a Fire Chief, was he ever in a position to fight fires?? Check him out!!
ReplyDeleteScott lowden is someone you want in charge. He has been with the forest service for 30+ years. He's no rookie and he knows what he's doing.
ReplyDeleteAnd he has a cool mustache!
ReplyDelete