New Theory Offered In Smokejumpers’ Deaths

A new theory that a natural fuel-air explosion killed 14 firefighters on Storm King Mountain in Colorado last July - including nine from Oregon - is under study by the Forest Service.

The theory says that explosive gases can “cook” or exude from plants during a fire and travel considerable distances, possibly concentrating in natural terrain before being detonated without warning.

Ted Putnam, 51, an equipment specialist at the Forest Service Technology and Development Center in Missoula has been pushing the agency to look into the theory for nearly a year.

Scientists finally are responding to Putnam’s belief that a fuel-air explosion could explain survivor accounts of being burned and knocked down by an invisible blast of hot air.

Darold E. Ward, fire chemistry project leader at the Forest Service’s Intermountain Research Station in Missoula, said: “I respect Ted’s analysis on this. Our fire research group here feels a need to take this on as a project to try to evaluate what the possible scenarios are.

The apparent suddenness with which firefighters were overtaken as they fled the fire near Glenwood Springs, Colo., last July 6 led Putnam to raise the fuel-air question.

If scientists can show that a fuel-air explosion occurred, it would settle a controversy over a type of hazard that has never been proven.

“Saying fuel-air is like Bigfoot may be a little too strong,” said Phil Omi, a former Forest Service firefighter who teaches fire science at Colorado State University. “But I don’t know that anyone has really documented its occurrence.”