BRIAN HEAD — Ben Burr is a public lands consultant who lives in New Harmony in Washington County. Even though Burr’s father died in an accident in October 2017 while doing reclamation work on the burn scar of the Brian Head Fire, he doesn’t blame the man who started the fire for his father’s death.
Ed. note: This is the fourth and final part of a series commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Brian Head Fire. If you haven’t read it already, you can start with part one by clicking here.
“I felt like (Robert Lyman) was treated unfairly,” Burr said. “He made a mistake. I mean, he obviously did ignite the fire. But if you hear his story of how it ignited, I think that that incident could happen to anybody. I don’t think he was being reckless. I don’t think he was out there trying to start a wildfire. I think he was taking precautionary measures, as much as me or you or anybody else would, thinking they’re doing it the right way. And sure, if you were to look at it in hindsight and say, well, it was dumb you did it this way, he would probably agree with you. But it wasn’t intentional negligence. If there was intention, the intention was to be careful and responsible.”
“I think what Bob did could have happened to anybody,” Burr added. “It could have been done by any one of those cabin owners up there.”
“But the way that that fire spread through the duff underground, imagine if that happened to you,” Burr added. “Imagine you’re out there camping somewhere, and you start a campfire. And you don’t know that fire can spread underground through the different compositions of plant debris and clay soils. That’s a combustible concoction, but people don’t know that.”
“After hearing Bob’s story, I have a fire contraption thing that keeps (a campfire) off the ground,” Burr added. “But we’ve had such dry summers, if you’re out there lighting a campfire nowadays in the West, especially in states like Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, that is a terrible idea.”
Brian Head Marshal Dan Benson said the pervasive drought conditions have led to an era of “megafires,” especially throughout the West.
“It’s challenging because we’re getting more and more visitors into our backcountry,” he said. “As populations grow, more and more people are getting back in there.
“Our goal is to try to educate and inform our guests or visitors — the people going into the backcountry — about the state of our forest and where they can get information. That’s the big key.”
One thing people need to realize, he said, that even a bone-dry forest can appear to be healthy and green.
“I think a big thing is just knowing what condition our forest is in, and not just assuming because it’s green and looking pretty and nice because of the spring,” Benson said. “As you look at it right now, there’s a lot of trees that are dying because of the severe drought we’re in. But yet, there’s green trees surrounding them.”
Benson also encouraged people to be aware of any state or local fire restrictions that are in effect.
“If you don’t know, just just call us and we’ll educate you,” he said. “We love it.”
Up-to-date statewide fire restrictions can also be found online at UtahFireInfo.gov.
“Another thing is to learn proper ways of clearing, cutting and thinning your lot,” he added. “We love to educate people on how to clear away (their property), and we offer projects and programs that will chip your debris for you.”
Benson also noted that Brian Head officials even recently canceled the town’s Fourth of July fireworks show, citing the risk of fire danger, although the other planned festivities will still take place.
Calls for forest management
The Brian Head Fire and other similar large fires also serve as a wake-up call for administrative changes in how forests and other public lands are managed, Burr said.
“Once we get into August, if you ask people and say, ‘Do you love all the smoke in the air? Do you like the fact that every forest is burning up and you can’t go camping and enjoy yourself in the mountains, and … wood prices are through the roof but we can’t use our forests for wood?’”
“’Do you think we should have active management or do you think the whole thing should be a wilderness?’” Burr continued. “I think most reasonable people will say, ‘Hey, you know what? Let’s have active management. I mean, we want it to be managed. We want there to be rules and guidelines. This hands-off approach isn’t working.’”
Garfield County Commissioner Leland Pollock told Cedar City News the “tremendous fuel load” is what caused the Brian Head Fire to spread so catastrophically.
Pollock said that regardless of how the fire started, the amount of dead fuel should have never been allowed to reach that point.
“We should have never closed that sawmill,” he added. “We should have never stopped actively managing our forests. The proof is what we used to have versus what we have now.”
Pollock said there have been multiple projects that have taken place throughout Garfield County over the past few years, in an ongoing effort to thin trees and reduce the fuel load on public lands. One such project, located in the hills south of Panguitch, he said, has improved the rangeland forage for animals.
Today, thanks to a series of extensive rehabilitation projects conducted over the past few years by the U.S. Forest Service, many of the nearly 72,000 acres that burned, along with more than 17,000 acres of downstream drainage areas affected by the fire, appear to be well on their way to recovery.
Among the countless thousands of dead trees that remain standing within the burn scar, many quaking aspens and other smaller trees, shrubs and grasses have already begun to take hold and make the mountains green once again.
As for the monetary damages caused by the fire, Lyman said his insurance company ended up paying out a total of $300,000, which he acknowledges is only a small portion of the total costs involved. Of that amount, Lyman said the federal government took $135,000 and the state took $45,000, leaving $120,000 for the claimants. However, most of the private property owners who reported losses were taken care of by their own insurance, if they had coverage.
Lyman said he also ended up paying his lawyers about $120,000 out of his own pocket, which he said represented “quite a chunk of my retirement.”
Refiner’s fire
Toward the end of his most recent interview with Cedar City News, Lyman pensively wondered if the Brian Head Fire wasn’t meant to be his own personal trial by fire.
Although he’s admittedly not an actively religious churchgoer, Lyman said he recalls one particular time when he did receive an answer to prayer. It happened when the basketball team he was coaching at West High School upset Provo to win the 4A state championship in 2009.
Lyman said he prayed to God for help before the game.
“I asked not to win, but to be able to inspire these kids,” he recalled. “When I started to give my pregame speech, something took over. It was not me talking. But I came out with some words and some thoughts that I had never even thought of.”
Lyman said his speech was so effective, his assistant coach Clark Godfrey, who was in his 80s, walked up to him after the players had left the locker room and exclaimed excitedly, “Bob, I’m ready to play for you right now!”
West went on to defeat heavily favored Provo in the title game, 56-44.
“For the next few years, what did I do? I walked around and had everybody pat me on the back and tell me what a great coach I am,” Lyman recalled. “It’s like I was done a favor by God, but I didn’t do anything with it.”
“But I know there was something about that fire,” Lyman said. “I was ahead of it. I jumped ahead of that fire. I thought I had it stopped a couple times. But there was something supernatural that didn’t want me to put that fire out. I really think that God let that fire get out of control. Not to punish me … this is where I get all emotional … not to punish me, but to say, ‘I tried to help you out a few years ago and you didn’t listen.’”
“I just know that it’s my refiner’s fire,” he said. “When they make a blade, a sword, they’ll take a rough, jagged piece of metal and they’ll put it in an extremely hot fire. And they’ll pound it out, they’ll heat it and burn it and it’ll go through hell. But when they pull it up out of the fire, when it cools down, it’s a finely trimmed, sharp piece of metal.”
Although Lyman said he went through some very rough times emotionally in the aftermath of the fire, he ultimately reached a place where he was comfortable sharing his story.
“I’ve been very spiritual about it, you know, and there’s a reason for it happening,” he said.
“If the reason for me to get the truth out there is just so I can get revenge and be vindictive, then that defeats the whole purpose, and it really was a disaster,” he said.
“There’s got to be some education coming out of this,” he added. “In the spirit of education, to let people know what happened and get them thinking about environmental issues. That’s the spirit that I want.”
“And, you know, if somebody wants to share my side and hear from the ‘Scared Straight’ version of Smokey the Bear, I’ll be happy to talk to people and educate them,” Lyman added.
Lastly, Lyman said he would like to apologize to all those who were harmed as a result of the fire.
“I’d like to convey how sorry I am for everything that happened because of my actions,” he said. “Cabin owners, land owners, shop owners, flood victims, ranchers, tourists and people who just have their own memories of the mountain … I’m very sorry for what they’ve suffered, and I empathize with all of them.”
Read more:
- Brian Head Fire retrospective, Part 1: After 5 years, man who started massive Brian Head Fire shares story
- Brian Head Fire retrospective, Part 2: Lyman contends with legal proceedings and rumor mill
- Brian Head Fire retrospective, Part 3: Questions linger over firefighting tactics after bunker explosion
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