 The fatalities on the Blackwater fire led the federal government to initiate their earliest rigorous investigation on such an event . The USFS investigation of the Blackwater fire incident was led by David Godwin , Assistant Chief of Fire Control for the USFS . His conclusions were that the firefighters were in good physical condition and most had some experience fighting forest fires . Godwin also determined that the managers on the incident were all fully trained and experienced firefighting professionals . Godwin stated that no fault should be assigned to the fire managers as the situation was beyond their control . He indicated that because of the distances involved in getting enough manpower to combat the fire while it was still relatively small ( the Tensleep CCC crews had to travel 165 mi ( 266 km ) ) , the fire was not contained enough to prevent the rapid spread that occurred when the weather front approached . Godwin 's findings indicated that rapid deployment of firefighters was critical to successful fire suppression . These findings were reinforced by A. A. Brown , head of the Division of Fire Control in the Forest Service ’ s Rocky Mountain Region , who studied the fire behavior and the responses to the Blackwater fire . 
