NEW MEXICO

Compensation for wildfire victims passes $14 million

ALBUQUERQUE – More victims of a devastating wildfire sparked last year by the U.S. Forest Service in northern New Mexico are getting compensated, with payouts to landowners totaling more than $14 million by the week of Aug. 7, federal emergency managers said.

Congress set aside nearly $4 billion at the end of last year to pay claims resulting from the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire. Officials have acknowledged that the recovery process would be long and challenging, but many residents and some lawmakers have been frustrated with the pace.

Angela Gladwell, the director of the claims office, said more than 1,600 notices of loss have been filed so far and that her office has around $50 million worth of claims that are currently being processed. She estimated her office would be operational for the next five to six years to ensure that “everyone gets every penny that they are due.”

The claims office also recently began working with the National Flood Insurance Program so that eligible claimants can receive five years of flood insurance protection, with premiums paid by the claims office. One of the big concerns for residents has been post-fire flooding.

Numerous missteps by forest managers resulted in prescribed fires erupting last spring into what became the largest wildfire in New Mexico’s recorded history. The blaze forced the evacuation of thousands of residents from villages throughout the Sangre de Cristo mountain range as it burned through more than 530 square miles of the Rocky Mountain foothills.

The fire destroyed homes and livelihoods – and forced the Forest Service to review its prescribed fire polices before resuming operations last fall.

MONTANA

Poor track conditions caused fatal 2021 derailment: report

HELENA – Poor track conditions that should have been flagged by a freight railroad company’s inspectors caused the derailment of an Amtrak train in Montana that killed three people and injured 49 others in 2021, federal investigators said on July 27 in a final report.

The severity of the injuries were made worse by the Amtrak train’s lack of seatbelts and windows that weren’t strong enough to keep passengers from being ejected when the train derailed, the National Transportation Safety Board found.

Amtrak’s Empire Builder derailed Sept. 25, 2021, in northern Montana while it was en route from Chicago to Seattle and Portland, Oregon, with 165 people on board, including its crew. It was traveling on tracks owned by BNSF Railway.

Six people were ejected from the train’s observation car, which has larger windows and was one of three cars that ended up on its side. One person who had been riding in the observation car died, as did two people who were in the vestibule between the observation car and the car behind it, the NTSB said.

Investigators found that a train inspector’s workload likely prevented him from doing a timely walking inspection of the area before the derailment.

The inspector had noticed problems with the joints on the tracks during a riding inspection two days before the derailment, but he and a manager didn’t stop to check out the joints. BNSF had also ordered trains to go no faster than 50 mph in that area seven times in the two months before the derailment – a period in which it was replacing railroad ties.

BNSF railroad spokesperson Lena Kent defended the company’s inspection record and touted its use of advanced technology that alerts personnel to dangerous track conditions.

Investigators also found that if a locomotive equipped with an automated vehicle-track interaction monitoring system had traveled over the area, it might have detected the deteriorating track conditions and BNSF would have had an opportunity to make repairs, or at least issue a warning to train crews to travel slowly through the area. The NTSB is recommending that all trains be equipped with that technology.

Rare otter attack injures three floating on inner tubes

BILLINGS – A rare attack by a river otter in southern Montana injured three women floating on inner tubes and inflicted wounds serious enough that one victim had to be airlifted to a hospital, authorities said on Aug. 3.

The attack happened near the town of Cardwell on a remote stretch of the Jefferson River, a tributary of the Missouri River that’s popular with anglers and recreational floaters.

At least one otter swam up to the adult women at about 8:15 p.m. on Aug. 2 and attacked them, said Morgan Jacobsen with Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks. The women were able to get to shore, where one of them called 911, he said.

One woman’s wounds, on her face and arms, were so severe that the helicopter was used to fly her out, Jefferson County Undersheriff James Everett said. The others had injuries to their arms.

Northern river otters are members of the weasel family and can reach up to 20 pounds – as heavy as a small dog – and up to 47 inches long. They primarily eat fish.

“If folks are attacked by an otter, our recommended response is to fight back, get away and get out of the water,” Jacobsen said.

IDAHO

Jury convicts 5 for conspiring to riot at Pride event

COEUR D’ALENE – Five members of the white nationalist hate group Patriot Front were convicted on July 20 of misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to riot at a Pride event.

A Kootenai County jury found Forrest Rankin, Devin Center, Derek Smith, James Julius Johnson and Robert Whitted guilty after about an hour of deliberation, news outlets reported.

A total of 31 Patriot Front members, including one identified as its founder, were arrested June 11, 2022, after someone reported seeing people loading into a U-Haul van like “a little army” at a hotel parking lot in Coeur d’Alene, police have said.

Police found riot gear, a smoke grenade, shin guards and shields inside the van after pulling it over near where the North Idaho Pride Alliance was holding a Pride in the Park event, Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White has said.

Documents found with the group reportedly outlined a plan to form a column outside City Park and proceed inward, “until barriers to approach are met.”

Those arrested came from at least 11 states, including Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota, Illinois, Wyoming, Virginia and Arkansas.

Rioting is generally a misdemeanor in Idaho. Conspiracy to riot is punishable by up to one year in jail, as well as a $5,000 fine and up to two years of probation.

ARIZONA

Woman injured in bison attack says ‘yes’ to marriage proposal

PHOENIX – An Arizona woman who suffered fractured vertebrae and collapsed lungs after being gored by a bison in Yellowstone National Park has said “yes” to her boyfriend’s hospital proposal.

Chris Whitehill said he planned to propose to Amber Harris during their vacation in the park, but after spending just one night there, an encounter with a bison upended those plans.

The couple from the Phoenix area had walked to a lodge for some coffee on July 17 and decided to walk through a field to Yellowstone Lake in Wyoming, Harris posted on Facebook the next day.

They noticed two bison and watched one “drop and roll in the dirt, like a dog would,” she wrote. “He got up on his feet and started walking, then running toward us.”

The bison “struck her head-on and she was airborne,” Whitehill told KPNX-TV in Phoenix, adding, “She landed pretty hard on her back.”

Harris, 47, was airlifted to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho, where she was recovering from seven fractured vertebrae, collapsed lungs and bruising.

That night, Whitehill “got down on one knee beside my hospital bed,” Harris wrote in a Facebook post that included a photo of the ring on her finger. “Without any hesitation I said yes!”

The bison attack was the first in Yellowstone in just over a year, park officials said.