Lawmakers seek broad probe into Forest Service response to Station fire

California's two U.S. senators and several local House members Thursday called on Congress' investigative arm to launch a sweeping probe into the Forest Service's response to last summer's disastrous Station fire. In asking for the investigation by the Government Accountability Office, which typically grants such requests, the lawmakers recommended a broad examination of the Forest Service's decisions and tactics. Those include the use of aircraft early in the fight and the question of whether everything possible was done to protect homes that burned in Big Tujunga Canyon. The legislators also cited the disclosure this week that telephone dispatch recordings made during the fire were withheld from a Forest Service review team and the public. The Times requested the recordings last year and again this year, but Forest Service officials said they did not exist. The late discovery of the recordings "casts a dark cloud over the findings of the review panel and immediately warrants an independent review of the Station fire response," the lawmakers said in a letter to the GAO. "Our purpose for this review is to ensure that all actions in the response to the fire were taken swiftly, properly and competently."...more