WHEN GOV'T RULES ARE DEADLY.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)

Environmental rules often cost Americans their livelihoods. After four firefighters died last month in the Okanogan National Forest so that some fish could live, we learn that government rules can cost Americans their lives.

Blame the Endangered Species Act. When firefighters battling a 9,600-acre wildfire in Washington needed a water drop, they were put on hold. The drop couldn't be approved right away because the water needed to be scooped from a nearby river where protected fish swim.

By the time special permission was finally granted -- nearly 10 hours after the first call -- four young firefighters, two of them teen-age girls, had died in an almost unimaginable way. Fox News reports they "burned to death while cowering under protective tents near the Chewuch River."

Meanwhile, salmon and trout had been protected by the U.S. government. We're sure this'll be of great consolation to the dead firefighters' families.

Reuters went easy on Washington. It reported, "Failure by government agencies to communicate properly may have contributed to the deaths of four firefighters."

The government's role -- and that of Congress -- was clearly more direct. If the ESA had never passed, it's likely those firefighters would still be alive. But under the law, bureaucrats had to weigh politically whether people or fish were more important.

After the fact, the U.S. Forestry Service is tap-dancing. The policy is to "get the water where we can get it and ask questions later," the service's fire chief, Dale Bosworth, told Congress on Tuesday. But somebody in the chain -- no doubt conditioned by the relentless pro-environmental drumbeat in the major media ...