By MES Dispatch Staff
The Briefing
- The Washington National Guard is investigating 11 wildland firefighters photographed holding a Rhodesian flag while assigned to the Little Giant Fire in Chelan County this month.
- A National Guard spokesperson said the photo, published on Instagram, showed a “poor choice” by those involved and that the individuals are under investigation by their chain of command.
- The photo was taken Aug. 13 or 14; the firefighters’ faces appear digitally blurred in the image.
- The Little Giant Fire has burned more than 150,000 acres and remains active.
- The Rhodesian flag has been widely associated with white supremacist movements since the country’s 1965-1979 period of white minority rule.
WENATCHEE, Wash. — The Washington National Guard is investigating a group of wildland firefighters photographed displaying the flag of Rhodesia, a former white-minority-ruled state in southern Africa, while assigned to a wildfire burning in Chelan County.
Guard spokesperson Joseph Siemandel said the personnel involved are under investigation by their chain of command, calling the incident a “poor choice” by those involved. The photograph, published on Instagram, shows 11 firefighters in full gear standing atop a mound surrounded by smoldering grass and shrubs, with two in the back row holding up the green-and-white flag. The firefighters’ faces appear to have been digitally blurred.
Siemandel said the photo was taken Aug. 13 or 14 at the Little Giant Fire, which has burned more than 150,000 acres, or about 234 square miles, and remains active.
Rhodesia existed from 1965 to 1979 in the territory that is now Zimbabwe, after the country’s white-led government issued a unilateral declaration of independence from Britain to preserve minority rule. Most nations refused to recognize the state, and the United Nations imposed sanctions during a period marked by armed conflict between the white-led government and Black liberation movements. The flag has since become associated with white supremacist ideology; it was featured on the website of Dylann Roof, who murdered nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
The Washington National Guard has not indicated when its investigation is expected to conclude or whether the firefighters involved face potential discipline.