Injured firefighter in Twisp fire sues electric cooperative

By Marcy Stamper / Methow Valley News

Daniel Lyon, the firefighter who was severely burned in the 2015 Twisp River Fire, has filed a lawsuit against the Okanogan County Electric Cooperative (OCEC), alleging that the co-op’s negligence and recklessness in maintaining trees near powerlines ignited the deadly fire.

The lawsuit, filed May 30 in Okanogan County Superior Court, seeks unspecified damages for Lyon’s physical and mental pain and injuries, disability and loss of earnings.

“The fire that overtook Daniel Lyon and his fellow firefighters was entirely preventable,” the suit asserts.

Lyon, now 27, is the only firefighter to survive the crash and entrapment of a U.S. Forest Service engine that went off the steep, curving road in blinding smoke and flames. Lyon’s three colleagues died when the engine became entrapped in a burnover as they tried to escape the fire.

“Lyon survived, but was left with horrific burns disfiguring his face, hands and scarring his entire body,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that OCEC was negligent and reckless because the co-op didn’t cut back water birch trees growing on a slope beneath its powerlines. By allowing a tree to grow into the high-voltage lines, OCEC failed to follow law, industry standards and even its own standards, attorneys James McCormick and Stephen Bulzomi, of Evergreen Personal Injury Counsel in Tacoma, contend in the lawsuit.

Although the base of the trees was 29 feet from the nearest conductor, the trees grew at an angle toward the powerlines, according to the lawsuit.

“The egregiousness of defendants’ failure to maintain the high-voltage distribution lines in a safe condition cannot be overstated,” the suit says.

OCEC claims it clears vegetation for 10 feet on either side of its powerline corridors on a three-year cycle, but there was no record that the utility had inspected or maintained the Twisp River corridor at any time after the winter of 2012-13, the suit says. The tree branches that came into contact with the powerline are believed to be 4½ years old, it says.

DNR’s conclusion

That information is based on an investigation by the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) released in May 2016. The DNR investigation concluded that the fire “was … caused by the branches of a water birch tree … coming in contact with and chafing an uninsulated energized power line conductor.” DNR investigators found small tree branches that had been burned at their ends, as well as evidence of charred electrical conductors, they said in the investigation. Lyon’s lawsuit references these findings, but doesn’t quote this language directly.

Lyon and his crew were dispatched to the fire, about six miles west of Twisp on Twisp River Road, shortly after noon on Aug. 19, 2015. In about two hours, a shift in wind caused the fire to change direction and magnitude, pushing it toward Lyon and his crew, according to the lawsuit.

Lyon and his crew were told to evacuate to their safety zone. “The intensity of the fire was now extreme. The noise was deafening and the smoke and flames obscured everything from sight. Trees were exploding into flames. However, the crew of Engine 642 was confused about which direction to evacuate because their predetermined escape route and safety zone took them in the direction of the hottest part of the fire,” the suit says.

According to the account in the lawsuit, the crew was ultimately directed to drive down Woods Canyon Road, directly into the path of the fire. The fire had overtaken the road and “the smoke was so thick that the roadway was completely obscured.”

One or more tires blew from the intense heat, causing the engine to lurch and head off the road and down an embankment, where it got high-centered on a rock. The driver tried to get the truck to move, but it was “stuck and incapacitated.” Another truck passed them on the road, but didn’t realize what had happened, according to the suit.

The entrapment was reported about two-and-a-half hours after the fire started.

Severe injuries

In the next moments the fire overtook the engine. Lyon managed to escape and made his way through the flames and back to the road to find help, according to the lawsuit. The three firefighters remaining in the truck perished.

Lyon had no shirt or hardhat and had been severely burned. He was assisted by medics and an ambulance, and then transported to the burn unit at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. “Lyon recalls wondering if he was going to die,” the attorneys say in the legal complaint.

With burns covering more than 70 percent of his body, Lyon spent the next three months at Harborview, receiving numerous skin-graft surgeries. The tips of several fingers had to be amputated. When Lyon saw himself for the first time after the incident, he was disfigured and bandaged and didn’t recognize himself physically, according to the suit.

After being released from Harborview, Lyon moved to Montana, near his family, for intensive rehabilitation, therapy and counseling. “He has had a particularly difficult time trying to learn to use his hands again. Everything is harder now than it used to be, but he continues to fight to recover some of the life he had before he was burned,” according to the lawsuit.

In addition to OCEC, the lawsuit names the Douglas County Public Utility District (PUD) as a defendant. The PUD owns the property where the fire started. The complaint was amended in June to remove DNR and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) as defendants.

OCEC hasn’t submitted its response to Lyon’s lawsuit yet and has no comment on the matter.

Other lawsuits were filed last year against OCEC, the Douglas County PUD, DNR, and WDFW by property owners seeking to recover property losses. In addition, DNR filed a lawsuit against OCEC in 2016 seeking more than $1 million to reimburse its firefighting and investigation expenses. All the suits are still pending.

Reprinted with permission from the Methow Valley News