Forest Service sued over loss of life, property from Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak wildfire

 The wildfire, New Mexico’s largest in history, destroyed more than 314,000 acres and 900 structures, but there were no deaths reported while the fire raged. The U.S. Forest Service took responsibility for starting the blaze, which began as a prescribed burn but spread out of control in high winds in April 2022 and took more than two months to contain.

Congress set aside nearly $4 billion to compensate victims. And last week, FEMA announced its claims office has paid more than $101 million so far for claimant losses.

But what kind of losses are eligible for compensation is now at issue in two federal lawsuits filed this month in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, including one filed by the relatives of the victims who died in the flash flood.

That wrongful death lawsuit filed Oct. 11 alleges the U.S. Forest Service not only was negligent in the management of the prescribed burn, but was to blame for failing to close roads and prevent access to areas at risk for life-threatening flooding that followed.

The agency didn’t follow “mandated directives to put in place barriers or other protective systems following damage to the land” in the burn scar, the lawsuit contends.

The Forest Service also allegedly failed to provide adequate warnings to the Cummings couple and Greenhaw about the dangers caused by the wildfire, and the dangers of potential flash floods in the area.

Meanwhile, 10 survivors of the fire sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency last week over an aspect of its final administrative rule related to compensation for fire victims...more