The Colorado Sun25%
“Bad ass” wildland firefighter memorialized in Grand Junction 9%
By Nancy Lofholm20%
8/1/2026, 2:40:00 PM
Keywords: Eagle County, Firefighters, Grand Junction, Helicopter, Knowles Fire, Mesa County, Rifle, Snyder Fire
BS Summary: This article contains 18 faulty reasoning types, including Red Herring, Appeal to Emotion, and Confirmation Bias, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 13.5% saturation with 110 hits. Analysis detected 825 faulty-reasoning hits from 813 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 20.6% and a BS Rank of 9% (23,760 of 26,004 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 91.40% of the article peer group.
GRAND JUNCTION — Nathan “Nate” Matthews was a “bad ass,” U.S.
Wildland Fire Service Director Brian Fennessy said during a memorial service for Matthews Saturday in Grand Junction.
He was known on the fire lines as a lover of fresh-brewed coffee and “bubbly water,” a maker of creative fire camp mocktails, a trickster, and a reliable and kind worker who was an outdoorsman to his core.
The 43-year-old from Lincoln, Nebraska, fought wildland fires for 11 years, and he had been fighting hard for his life for nearly a month in a Denver burn unit, according to fellow Rifle Helitack Team member Megan Spencer, who had spent time with him there.
But Matthews died July 24.
On Saturday morning, he was honored in a Grand Junction ceremony where his ashes sat inside a glass box on the stage at the Avalon Theater in front of 13 family members, including his twin brother, Nick Matthews.
Nate Matthews was the fifth wildland firefighter to die in Colorado this year in what national fire managers acknowledged during the memorial is a profession that is growing more dangerous and is stretching to year-round work, rather than a seasonal job as conditions grow increasingly hotter and drier.
Matthews and four other firefighters with the Rifle Helitack Team were dropped into a fire in western Mesa County on June 27, a day when winds were whipping 30 to 50 mph and western Colorado was in virtual air fryer mode.
Two new fires, the Knowles and Gore fires, had flared to the east of two large Utah fires that had merged into one and darkened Western Slope skies.
The Wildland Fire Service and the U.S.
Forest Service on Friday issued a first report outlining what happened that day, one day before Matthews’ service.
The five firefighters were dropped by helicopter into a remote area to fight the new fires.
But shortly after noon, satellite imagery showed that another lightning-caused ignition had blown up not far from the firefighters.
Just before 3 p.m., the crew requested that a helicopter pick them up.
Within 10 minutes, a helicopter lifted off from the Grand Junction firefighting headquarters and headed out to rescue them.
The trip took only five minutes, but by the time the helicopter reached the firefighters the smoke was so thick it was unable to land.
The firefighters deployed their shelters — basically fireproof pup tents that are standard last-resort gear for wildland firefighters.
But the flames roared over the top of them.
Nick Hutcherson, Emily Barker and Sydney Watson died where they were huddled in their shelters.
Matthews and a fifth firefighter who has not been named, were injured and were airlifted from the fire.
A speaker at Matthews’ ceremony Saturday referred to that firefighter as “recovering.”
A fifth firefighter died July 12 while fighting the Gold Mountain fire.
Nicholas Dale, of British Columbia, died when his helicopter crashed into Silver Jack Reservoir northeast of Ouray.
Why were firefighters dropped in such a remote area, senator wonders
A day before Matthews’ ashes were ceremoniously brought from Denver to Grand Junction in an I-70 procession Friday, at least one official spoke up about being impatient to get answers about why the firefighters were dropped into a remote area to fight a fire that wasn’t threatening any structures.
“With wildfires still raging across Colorado, we can’t afford to wait months to learn the hard lessons that could save lives,” U.S.
Sen.
John Hickenlooper, a Colorado Democrat, said Thursday on the floor of the U.S.
Senate.
Hickenlooper called for a full investigation and a look into whether the Trump administration’s combining of agencies earlier this year into the Wildland Fire Service contributed to their deaths.
That was the same day the Wildland Fire Service and the U.S.
Forest Service released the “Serious Accident Investigation Team Update #1,” a bare-bones accounting of the deadly fire.
Outside the Saturday ceremony, after family members had left carrying ashes, bronze statues of firefighters and ceremonial flags, firefighters were reluctant to say anything about the changing politics behind firefighting, or much about the fact that wildland firefighters are operating in Level 5 mode, which means that firefighting resources are maxed out nationwide.
“Really, nothing much has changed.
It’s all ebb and flow,” said Joe Fazzi, district ranger for the White River National Forest.
“One change is that we do have more year-around personnel on the job.”
Tod McKay, a pipe major for the U.S.
Forest Service Honor Guard Emerald Society, which is responsible for the solemn bagpipe and drum portion of ceremonies for deceased firefighters, said he has been all over the country this year.
The pipe-and-drum crew gathers from across the country to be at ceremonies such as the one Saturday and also at hometown ceremonies and funerals for all firefighters.
“It’s been an extremely busy summer,” McKay said.
Analysis
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