The news story that claims Oregon fire crew bosses are being fired/demoted because of their inability to speak Spanish is erroneous. Here are the facts:

The Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) has no requirement that its employees speak Spanish, and does not demote or fire anyone because they don’t speak Spanish. And to our knowledge, no crew boss on the private contract fire crews that we use has ever been fired on account of not being able to speak Spanish, either.

ODF and its partner federal and state agencies in Oregon and Washington contract with private companies to supply fire crews, including crew bosses, for frontline firefighting work. These crews work under the guidance of incident management teams provided by ODF and other state and federal land management agencies.

Because English is the language of firefighting in the U.S., we must have the ability to communicate with all crews. Accordingly, the interagency contract requires that the leaders of contract crews speak English. This requirement covers the crew boss and the three squad bosses on a typical 20-person crew.

Companies may choose whom they hire for their crews. If a company elects to hire employees who do not speak English, then the supervisors of that crew must speak English as well as the language of any crew members who don’t speak English. This is a matter of good communication, safety and effectiveness for the agencies that hire crews under the contract, and we believe the system provides a sound resource for fighting fires that get larger than those that agencies can handle with their own employees. Over the years, the contract crews, including those with some non-English-speaking firefighters, have established a good record of safety and performance.

Now, back to the Fox News story with reporter Bret Baier that is circulating on the web: It is dated August 2007. The original, erroneous story that started this rumor appeared on an Oregon TV station (not FOX) in summer 2006. The Denver News Channel picked it up from the Oregon station. Then, Neil Cavuto of Fox did a live interview with the disgruntled firefighter who was quoted in the original Oregon TV story. Bret Baier's news story appears to derive largely from Cavuto's interview and from the Oregon TV story.

Unfortunately, these national and regional news media outlets didn't bother to check the facts with the target of the story's allegations, the Oregon Dept. of Forestry, before going public. Thus was born an urban legend.

For more information on this matter, go to the department's website, www.oregon.gov/odf.

- Rod Nichols, Oregon Dept. of Forestry