A Wildland firefighter is suing the U.S. Forest Service, claiming he was ‘black-hearted’ after speaking out publicly about loose coronavirus safety regulations during last year’s historic fire season that burned millions of acres in various Western states.
According to a complaint lodged with the U.S. Commission for Equal Employment Opportunity, Pedro Rios, a firefighter with 13 years of experience, was’ discriminated against and retaliated for for lack of COVID-19 protocols and protection for firefighters, families and the public. ”
Rios says he has been denied transfer duty, the hiring process of federal firefighters is undergoing every fire season after he publicly criticized his boss’ handling of safety guidelines.
He also lodged a complaint with the US Special Bureau of Investigation alleging that his right to freedom of speech as a public official was violated. Both complaints were received in February and the investigation is continuing, according to lawyer Tom Dimitre.
In a statement by email, the Forest Service declined to comment on pending litigation, saying “as a matter of policy we do not discuss personnel matters.”
The federal complaints stem from a post Rios posted on a Facebook community page in July. In the post, he warned residents of his small Northern California province that his firefighters would return to the Klamath National Forest without being quarantined until after spending a week in Southern California, which during the summer as a Covid-19 focus was considered. for many months thereafter.
“We have chosen this job and know what the dangers are, and bringing us back to Siskiyou which exposes an older public population and our own families is, in our view, absolutely short-sighted,” he wrote in the post.
He then posted a screenshot showing the names of officers from the Klamath National Forest with which members of the community can contact with questions or concerns.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic spread across the country, Rios was concerned about his son’s health and what would happen if the 4-year-old had a respiratory infection.
Like his mother and father, Felix Bell-Rios was born with severe asthma that can cause seizures in an instant. In 2019, he was transported to an intensive care unit to an intensive care unit after spending two days in hospital. He now uses Flovent medication and a nebulizer to keep his airways clean.
When Covid-19 arrived in the United States last year, Rios wondered what it would mean for the upcoming fire season and for his son’s safety. After discussing it with his girlfriend and members of his firefighters, he said he was confident the Forest Service would have the safety measures of Covid-19.
But that was not his experience when the fire season began, he said.
His crew received hand sanitizers and masks, but they were not ordered to quarantine before traveling to or after Southern California. Instead, his crew was told to isolate themselves if they experienced symptoms after returning to Siskiyou County, a rural community near the Oregon border.
Rios is concerned that these mitigation plans are inadequate, he said. He and others in the crew used public bathrooms and grocery stores while in Los Angeles, and they did not wear masks around each other or fight fires.
During his time in Southern California, he said, he expressed concern to his drivers that traveling to an urban area with a high Covid-19 rate could endanger his son and elderly residents in Siskiyou County.
“They left us to dry,” he said of the forest service. “They did not care about us or our safety, the safety of the public, the safety of our children.”