Judge dismisses Tamarack fire case

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by 18 Douglas County property owners against the U.S Forest Service over the 2021 Tamarack Fire.

U.S. District Court Judge William B. Shubb for the Eastern District of California issued the ruling on Wednesday.

Shubb heard arguments over the lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service on Jan. 22, according to attorney Bill Jeanney.

The plaintiffs have 60 days to appeal Shubb’s ruling.

Filed in July 2023, the $85 million lawsuit claims the Forest Service was negligent when it didn’t immediately extinguish a fire set by lightning in the Sierra.

The Forest Service challenged the lawsuit on the grounds of sovereign immunity.

According to the judge, “the plaintiff’s claim is ‘based upon the exercise or performance or the failure to exercise or perform a discretionary function or duty on the part of a federal agency or an employee of the government.”

A hiker on the Pacific Crest Trail notified the Carson Ranger District there was a fire on July 4, 2021, according to the ruling.

“The next day, on July 5, the Forest Service published the Tamarack Incident Decision, which set forth its initial assessment of and monitoring plan for the Tamarack Fire.”

The decision explained why the Forest Service chose to monitor the fire instead of suppressing it, based on firefighter safety, resource expenditure and risk of the fire growing.

“Here, the Forest Service clearly faced similar policy considerations before deciding on its strategy to monitor the Tamarack Fire,” Shubb wrote.

Plaintiffs argued that the Forest Service’s inaction was the result of inertia and should be held liable.

However, the judge pointed out that the issuance of the incident decision the next day indicated there were internal deliberations on what to do about the fire.

That decision was posted to the district’s social media page on July 10 along with video of the fire and a statement the fire didn’t pose a threat to the public.

Plaintiffs are also claiming the Forest Service failed to warn them in a timely manner about the threat posed by the fire, which exploded to life on July 16, 2021, growing from 100 acres to 10,000 acres on the first day and sending a huge column of smoke into the stratosphere and flames rushing toward the historic town of Markleeville.

That July 10 post was cited by the judge as an indication that the Forest Service did notify the public about the fire.

“The Forest Service did make a public communication in the form of the information and video posted on its FaceBook Page,” Shubb wrote. “It is not for the court to second-guess the adequacy of that communication.”

By the time the Tamarack Fire was extinguished, it claimed 25 structures and burned 68,696 acres from the Sierra to the Pine Nuts.

The fire shut down Highway 395 through the Pine Nut Mountains for a week after it arrived in Douglas County on June 20, 2021.

Douglas County declared a state of emergency on July 23, 2021.

The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice.