BEAVER, Utah — An Alabama firefighter was among three members of a federal wildland firefighting crew killed over the weekend while battling the Knowles Fire in western Colorado, as intense heat, wind and drought continue to drive dangerous wildfire conditions across the West and parts of the Midwest.
The U.S. Forest Service identified the Alabama firefighter as Sydney Watson, 27, of Warrior, Alabama, and said Watson was assigned to the Rifle Helitack crew. The other firefighters killed were Emily Barker, 38, of Clinton Township, Michigan, and Nick Hutcherson, 27, of Glendale, Arizona. Federal officials said two additional firefighters were injured and that a serious accident investigation team has been mobilized.
The deaths came as the Knowles Fire burned in western Colorado near the Utah border, part of a broader stretch of wildfire activity fueled by dry fuels, low humidity, strong winds and extreme heat. The National Weather Service said dangerous, record-breaking heat was intensifying across much of the central and eastern United States, while critical fire weather persisted in the Four Corners and Great Basin.
Scientists have warned that hotter, drier and windier conditions are making severe wildfires more likely and more intense, with one recent study finding that such fire-weather days have nearly tripled globally over the past 45 years and that more than half of the increase is linked to human-caused warming. Reuters also reported this year that the hot, dry and windy conditions that drive the most extreme wildfires are becoming more intense and more likely.
The blaze and the deaths are part of a larger pattern of increasingly severe fire seasons that experts and federal forecasters have tied to climate change, drought and extreme weather. The AP has reported that the United Nations is projecting a strong likelihood that at least one of the next five years will set a new heat record, with scientists warning that a hotter planet will bring more severe droughts, heat waves and wildfires.