Political Fire
Conrad Burns Issues Apology for Altercation with Firefighters
By Courtney Lowery, 7-28-06
Sen. Conrad Burns has issued a written apology for having an "altercation" at a Billings airport last weekend with members of a hot shot firefighting crew about the management of a 92,000-acre blaze in eastern Montana.
Jennifer McKee of the Lee State Bureau broke the story on Thursday, reporting on an account from state firefighting operations that Burns criticized a member of the Augusta Hot Shots from Virginia for doing a "poor job" and not listening to ranchers.
Today, Lee's Chuck Johnson reports on the Burns apology and includes this little nugget of a quote from Burns in the original report from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation: Burns, pointing across the airport at a hot shot is quoted as saying, “See that guy over there? He hasn’t done a God-damned thing. They sit around. I saw it up on the Wedge fire and in northwestern Montana some years ago. It’s wasteful. You probably paid that guy $10,000 to sit around. It’s gotta change.’’
At www.wildlandfire.com, firefighters across the nation are reacting to the Burns comments.
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