Forest Service mourns deaths of four firefighters

Employees of the Forest Service are mourning the loss of four colleagues who died Thursday while fighting a California forest fire.

Mark Loutzenhiser, 44, Jess McLean, 27, Jason McKay, 27, and Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20, were overrun by flames while assisting the California Department of Forestry in fighting an arson fire in the San Bernardino National Forest. A fifth Forest Service employee, Pablo Cerda, 23, is hospitalized in critical condition.

Loutzenhiser was an engine captain with 21 years of service. McLean and McKay, also full-time Forest Service employees, had seven and five years of service, respectively. Hoover-Najera and Cerda were hired as seasonal employees, and were both in their second season of service.

"Our deepest condolences go out to the families during this very tragic time," said Jeanne Wade Evans, supervisor at the San Bernardino National Forest. "All of us … in the fire service community are suffering a great loss."

The Forest Service, which is part of the Agriculture Department, is using a liberal leave policy for grieving employees, according to Matt Mathes, spokesman for the Pacific Southwest Region. The agency also is bringing in grief counselors, including psychologists, and setting up memorial services.

"If someone wants to take the day off to see a chaplain or for personal emotion reasons, that will not be a problem," Mathes said.

Meanwhile, Forest Service employees from other national forests in California are coming into San Bernardino to take over day-to-day management and to continue to fight the raging fire.

Still other agency employees are acting as family liaisons for relatives of the four fallen firefighters. Mathes said the liaisons are "Forest Service employees who have empathetic personalities and who also know how to answer questions families will have about death benefits."

When federal employees die in the course of performing their jobs, their surviving spouses are eligible for 50 percent of their pay indefinitely, or until they remarry. If the employee has children, the widow gets 45 percent of pay and each child gets 15 percent. The government also pays for up to $800 in burial expenses.

The Wildland Firefighter Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports fallen and injured firefighters, is paying to fly family members to California, and is covering the costs of their hotel rooms and rental cars, according to Burk Minor, the foundation's director of public relations. The group also is bringing past burn victims in to talk to survivors.

McKay was a dues-paying member of the National Federation of Federal Employees, Local 1558. Dan Duefrene, a regional vice president for NFFE, said union representative Joe Duran is on an investigative team that is meeting for the first time Friday afternoon to look into the deaths.

"We are devastated; the employees are totally devastated," Duefrene said. "We have somebody on the investigative team to look out for the employees and figure out what kinds of changes we need to be making."