Yesterday, the Pioneer Fire Protection District Board of Directors held a special meeting regarding the status of Chief Mark Matthews' employment. After the closed-door session, which is standard protocol for personnel discussions, it was announced that Matthews is "out on medical leave and will not be returning." The chief's contract is due to expire at … Continue reading Matthews Out due to Health, Ransdell In?

Photo Credit: ABC10 In November, 2021 I began working on a big-picture look at the Caldor Fire. I wanted to understand how the fire started and how the forest service responded. I wanted an inside look at who was doing what, when, and where during those first crucial hours following ignition in the Dogtown Creek … Continue reading My Interview with Mark Matthews on Palominas, Caldor Fire

This article is Part One of my series examining how forest management in previous years impacted the earliest days of the Caldor Fire. Part One explores what the Trestle Forest Health Project was and why it was needed. It is early 2013 and Kathryn Hardy, Forest Supervisor of Eldorado National Forest, is preparing a letter … Continue reading The Caldor Fire and the Impact of Forest Management – Part One: The Trestle Project Aims to Reduce Wildfire Risk to El Dorado County

"I have the GPS coordinates of roughly where it is." The time is 6:52 p.m. on August 14, 2021. Travis (Shane) Smith is connected to Camino dispatch after calling 911 to report a fire in the Dogtown Creek area of the Eldorado National Forest. With poor reception and heavy background noise the agent is having … Continue reading GPS Data, 911 Call Reveal Smiths’ Movements at Start of Caldor Fire

At the March 14, 2019 board meeting for the Pioneer Fire Protection District, firefighter Kane Gardiner spoke of suspected illegal behavior at the hands of Chief Mark Matthews. In his speech Gardiner claims that "all personnel" in the fire district suspect Matthews of recording conversations among staff members since the very beginning of Matthews' tenure. … Continue reading Pioneer Firefighter Demanded Investigation into Chief Matthews Over Claims of Illegal Spying

Image Credit: ABC10 In July, 2017 Officer John Monroe of the Cochise County Sheriff's Office filed a report detailing his investigation into complaints made against then-Palominas Fire Chief Mark Matthews. I obtained a copy of the report and interviewed witnesses associated with the report's content. Matthews was the first to arrive on scene to the … Continue reading Sheriff’s Report: Firefighters’ Suspicion Prompted Investigation into Fire Chief Mark Matthews

Trestle Forest Health Project Alternative #5 Map, September 13, 2017 Above is a map of the Trestle Forest Health Project (TFHP), a plan to treat 16,000 acres of land south and east of Grizzly Flats to improve forest health and fire resiliency. On September 11, 2017, after four years of proposals and environmental impact studies, … Continue reading The Caldor Fire and the Impact of Forest Management – Introduction: The Trestle Project and Grizzly Flats

Photo credit: Josh Edelson / AFP via Getty Images This article is the fourth and final installment in a series examining the initial response to the Caldor Fire August 14-17, 2021. In-depth reporting on these and the following days will continue in future posts and series. At 11:12 p.m. on August 16, 2021 the Caldor … Continue reading Part Four: Chaos as Caldor Fire Burns Grizzly Flats

Photo Credit Mark Levy, Herald Review In Part One of my ongoing investigation into the early response to the Caldor Fire, we were introduced to Pioneer Fire District Chief, Mark Matthews. Chief Matthews was one of the first, if not the first, to arrive on scene to the then-small brush fire in the Middle Fork … Continue reading Pioneer Fire Chief Matthews’ Former Department was Subject of Suspicious Fire Investigation