The Bear Gulch IAPs show that a Staging Group was formed for the August 27 operational period. The Staging Group consisted of Group Supervisor Tommy Crakes and two contract crews: Arden 29 (Type 2 IA) and Table Rock (Type 2). Crakes is also listed as the Logistics Section Chief in the IAP. The Staging Group and the two crews do not appear in the August 28 IAP. A CBP press release confirms that Arden and Table Rock were the two crews involved. The press release also states that BLM requested assistance from Border Patrol.
So ultimately they were after 2 people, but took the time to profile everyone on the 2 crews, and then after all that the 2 crews were demobed? However, I read the IMT said this didn't affect fire operations at all. I dunno, I think losing 2 whole crews in one division would certainly affect operations. What a bunch of cucks.
Both from same division- That confirmed? Looks like a staging area was created or at least that the 2 crews were assigned to staging for the day based on IAP. If assigned to staging on a down sizing /shrinking fire ( going from CIMT to Type 3 team in 24-48 hours after the raid) it’s possible -maybe even likely that the impact to fire operations was negligible. Crews come and go from fires for a variety of reasons. In a slow year non-IHC crews are not hard to come by. The team may have had back fill crews already on scene - hard to know w/o being there. ICE/LE rigs may not have had to pass any security points if the staging area was not near the line. Hard to say w/o being there. Lots we don’t know w/o being there.
Security /LE assigned to the incident works for LOGS in the standard IMT org. Chart. This could be why the LOGS chief was the staging area mgr. - To maintain secrecy within the IMT and rest of assigned resources. Makes sense to Keep the operation and knowledge of it small as possible.
We do know: Companies are supposed to verify the work status of their employees prior to sending them to fires. It’s in the contract. Failure to do so is a contract violation that can result in loss of contract on the part of the company. It’s in the contract.
I thought I read it was within the same division on the IAP. In my experience, staging areas typically cover only one or two divisions. Yes, the fire might have been in the process of being downsized but at that particular moment in time they weren't expecting to lose 2 crews. How long had the crews been there?
This originally started because the crews were foraging times. A total of about 5K above what they should have gotten. This is coming from someone in the team.
How would a random BLM LEO be investigating that on site? That’s not what SEC1s (LEOs) or security personnel in general do on fires. They are purely there for physical security and to enforce area/road closures. Forging times (fraud) would generally be handed over to an 1811/Special Agent of some kind to investigate. This sounds more like a rogue SEC1 that got ahead of himself but that’s purely speculation on my part.
The shift ticket forging did happen (confirmed by a firefighter who heard it directly from the IMT), but it isn't confirmed that the crew forging shift tickets was the same crew that was detained.
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u/YucatanSucaman 1d ago edited 1d ago
The Bear Gulch IAPs show that a Staging Group was formed for the August 27 operational period. The Staging Group consisted of Group Supervisor Tommy Crakes and two contract crews: Arden 29 (Type 2 IA) and Table Rock (Type 2). Crakes is also listed as the Logistics Section Chief in the IAP. The Staging Group and the two crews do not appear in the August 28 IAP. A CBP press release confirms that Arden and Table Rock were the two crews involved. The press release also states that BLM requested assistance from Border Patrol.