When David and Lynette Hamm learned their son had died while fighting a wildfire in Texas July 7, they were told that Caleb Hamm simply collapsed while working on a fire line in 106-degree heat.
The report from Mineral Wells, Texas, said Hamm hadn't shown "any noticeable signs of distress," and Bureau of Land Management officials said he received immediate medical attention but couldn't be revived by fellow firefighters.
An autopsy later showed that Hamm died from hyperthermia -- better known as heatstroke, when a person's body temperature rises to fatal levels.
What his parents didn't know initially was that Hamm, a 23-year-old in apparently excellent health, had been left alone on the fire line, on a hillside in the wilderness, after he began to show signs of heat exhaustion.
They say if crew members had kept an eye on each other, as they are supposed to do, Hamm might have gotten life-saving medical care in time.
"I feel like he could have been saved if they would have been there for him from the beginning," Lynette Hamm said.
"(Caleb) would have had a fighting chance," added David Hamm.
Since getting that report this fall, the Hamms have been to the site where their son died. They have talked to other people -- like the Mineral Wells city employee who followed the incident via radio and knows the topography well.
And they suspect the BLM report is seriously flawed -- that Hamm was left alone much longer than his fellow crew members say.
They also are upset about the way they have been treated by BLM officials in Utah, where Hamm's hotshot crew was based. The Hamms got the final report on their son's death emailed to them, instead of having an official brief them first. They learned about the autopsy report that determined the cause of death by reading an Associated Press story on the Internet. And David Hamm said BLM's Utah state director, Juan Palma, abruptly canceled a face-to-face meeting with him after he flew to Utah about three weeks after Caleb died.
The Idaho Statesman sent BLM officials a list of specific questions about the report and the Hamms' concerns. Officials did not answer those questions, but Palma did send the Statesman a statement saying that "information and potential issues have been brought to BLM's attention" since the report was filed in September.
"The BLM takes these concerns very seriously," Palma said. "We will immediately take a hard look at them to determine appropriate next steps."
REPORT RAISES MORE QUESTIONS
A Serious Accident Investigation Factual Report -- required after a firefighter fatality -- was issued by the BLM in September. It said that Hamm was left alone after he stumbled and fell while hiking a drainage. He told a co-worker he had a headache and felt hot, the report said
A fellow firefighter told Hamm to sit in the shade, before leaving to meet with other crew members a short distance away, according to the report.
When the firefighter returned about three minutes later, he discovered Hamm had collapsed on the rocks, the report said.
Crewmates began emergency medical work, including CPR but were not able to revive Hamm.
He was eventually carried to a road and put on a ground ambulance.
Hamm was declared dead at a Texas hospital about an hour and 10 minutes after he was found unconscious.
It took about 40 minutes after Hamm was found to get a medical helicopter close to the site.
By that time, paramedics thought they could give him better care in an ambulance because Hamm's heart had stopped beating.
David and Lynette Hamm say the timeline provided by the BLM -- that Caleb was by himself for only three minutes -- is impossible, based on their visit to the exact area near Mineral Wells, Texas, where their son died.
"There is no way anyone could hike from where they say Caleb was found to the top of the ridge and back in three minutes," David Hamm said.
"We were there," David Hamm said. "It would have taken much, much longer than that."
They also wonder why he was left alone by his fellow firefighters after showing signs of heat exhaustion.
REPORT CONTRADICTS ITSELF
"Even the report says two different things," said Lynette Hamm.
In the narrative, one firefighter says Hamm stumbled while hiking the ridge and said he felt hot and had a headache -- which his parents say is a clear sign something was wrong.
In its findings, however, the report says investigators say "signs and symptoms indicative of severe heat illness were not observed by co-workers or (verbally) communicated by Hamm."
The BLM declined to answer questions posted by the Statesman, including:
-- If it was a policy violation for a firefighter to leave a co-worker who was showing signs of heat problems, why did the firefighter who saw Hamm stumble and complain of a headache decided to leave and meet with other crew members?
-- Why didn't that firefighter use a radio or cellphone to contact other crew members?
-- Were any firefighters disciplined for their role in what happened?
"It is the BLM's policy to conduct reviews and investigations to obtain information to help prevent a recurrence of accidents," Palma said. "These reviews are not intended to be the basis of disciplinary actions."
The report is the agency's effort "to collect and interpret" the facts of Hamm's death, Palma said. "The report reflects the best information available at the time to the investigation team."
BLM'S CONCLUSIONS
The findings indicate that no major problems were detected in how crews reacted in the Hamm case.
Investigators say Hamm was not severely dehydrated at the time of his death and that his electrolytes were in the normal range.
They also found that firefighters in Hamm's crew were prepared for a medical emergency, both with training and equipment.
They did find areas in need of improvement. For instance, investigators found cellphones were used to coordinate medical response instead of radios in some circumstances, which prevented other officials from monitoring communications.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
