A former Arizona hotshot superintendent is suing the federal government to obtain aircraft radio transmissions that may help explain the deaths of 19 firefighters in the Yarnell Hill Fire of 2013. Fred Schoeffler alleges in his federal court complaint that the Department of Agriculture has denied a public-records request for recordings and transcripts of U.S. Forest Service radio traffic among employees who were conducting an aerial firefighting study during the fatal blaze. Schoeffler, a former hotshot supervisor in Payson for 26 years, alleges that the Forest Service answered his Freedom of Information Act request by claiming they "did not find any responsive records.