Sunday, January 14, 2007  I was a wildland firefighter for the Forest Service. I had been working a normal day at the station until a fire had been reported in the late afternoon. We responded as usual. We were called to meet up with who ever was in charge. Where we had met up, it had steep rockie hillside to the left and a river bed to are right. When we had arrived, there was a hot shot crew hiking on the rocky hillside to are left. It was a big red flag to me, and was a cause for concern. I had a bad feeling that we should had not been there, but I ignored that feeling and continued to wait. But within minutes are engine and others who were around heard some yell boulder! I looked up to see this boulder about the size of a small SUV tumbling down the hillside. I took off running and had got my foot stuck on some roots. I had gotten up to start running again but was tripped by the others who were running as well. But this time I never got up. I was hit by this thing. It had crushed me from the neck down. I was airlifted to Loma Linda University Hospital. I had a fractured right femur, muniscus tear to the right knee, disk damage to my lower back, bruising that had covered half of my body, sprained ankles that swelled half way up my legs, layers of skin scrapped of my leg and large indetations were the muscle had been ripped away from the bone. The horrible thing is , is I never lost contiousness. I remember quite a bit of it! Still dealing with getting things fixed. Possibly more surgery. LESSONS LEARNED: Go with your gut instinct! If you feel uneasy about something, do something about it. Always be very abservent about your surroundings. Compleasantcy on someone elses part can cost the lives of others!  

Tuesday, November 28, 2006  My husband and I were responding to a mutual aid call for a grass fire. We were one of 3-4 volunteer depts. responding. Also there was a privately owned bulldozer brought in to help. When we arrived on scene, we received our orders and started in fighting the grass fire as instructed. My husband was driving and I was on the back of our grass truck in the "firefighting cage"(section on our truck designed for standing in while on scene fighting the fire.) The cage is on the rear of this particular truck. We only ride there while on scene, if we have to go onto a road to get to another area (or return to station) we have to get off the cage and ride in the cab of the truck. We were reassigned to another part of the grass fire which was a large open field/ hay field. It had several stands of trees surrounding it and some structures on the other side of the trees from the fire. We were sent over to try to protect the stands of trees and the structures. Part of the field was already wet, later after I was hurt there were at least four different brush trucks stuck at the same time, including ours. At this point let me explain. I had my turnout pants on along with my structure boots, gloves and my helmet (along with our fire dept t shirt.) I had made the decision not to pull off the boots and put with my grass suit due to the amount of time it would take. I had had my shield up for a few minutes while resting, then just before we started to roll I put the shield down. Also the truck we were on is a heavy duty pickup that we have converted to a grass truck. It has utility bed and in the middle is our tank/pump/ hose reel skid unit. The firefighting cage is in essence an extended bumper with mid-torso high railing. As we started to roll into the field, my husband (the driver) stopped and looked over the field as well as I did from the position where I was. It looked smooth and flat. He started rolling and within a few seconds we hit a series of ditches/bumps (or something, we never figured out what it actually was.) These bumps were totally hidden from view. My husband was not going even 10 mph when he hit them. The bumps were deep enough that it caused him to hit his head on the ceiling of the truck. For myself, the first bump threw me around inside the cage. The second one threw me on top of our truck (the passenger side mainly on the utility boxes.) I watched my face smash into the back of the truck. My helmet shield took the blows that my face would have taken otherwise. The third one threw me off the passenger side of the truck. I well remember thinking to myself "Oh Lord, there are the back tires." I remember doing everything I could to find something to hold onto and that something was in my left hand the whole time. By the time we were moving, a second truck from our dept. had arrived and they were following us when we hit the ditches/bumps. They saw everything happening. They radioed my husband even before I hit the ground. As I hit the ground, I remember trying to stand up to chase the truck saying hey you are leaving me behind, when I realized that I was hurt more than I at first thought. I sat back down, then laid back down. I also remember trying to find the radio that had been in my shirt pocket. Later they found that it had actually stayed on the truck. I also looked behind me and found that my helmet had been knocked off of my head when I hit the ground. I had help right there within a few seconds of me hitting the ground, my husband was there almost as quick. The truck we were on serves as a medical truck as well, so we had supplies there immediately. My husband is a paramedic so medical attention was there immediately. We also had an ambulance already on scene, because several other firefighters were either injured or overcame by smoke. I was one of three injured or overcome by smoke that day. I was checked over by my husband for neck/back injuries. Once cleared on that, I was helped up and started walking over to our truck which was within ten feet of us. I knew my arm was broken. Not an open one though. While my husband was splinting my arm, I stopped him and had him check my eyes. Things were starting to turn white and I started feeling really nauseated. ( I now know what it is like to almost pass out, but at that time did not realize that this was what was happening.) He said my eyes were responding appropriately. Once my arm was splinted, we got back into the truck. My vision didn't get any worse. Before we started to head back to command, I saw areas were the fire was needing to get knocked down or it would hit the stands of trees. (As later related to me by my husband and another firefighter) I was apparently more insistent on fighting the fire than I remember. This is the only part I do not truly remember. I do remember getting into the truck, pointing out areas that needed to be gotten, watching my husband pull up to areas that I saw and knocking the fire down, getting stuck along with the other trucks and the bulldozer getting us, the sound of the water under our wheels, my husband asking if I felt that I needed the ambulance. When I felt that my head had cleared, I asked to drive so my husband could fight the fire and he told me "Ain't no way!" When we got to the command center, the ambulance crew (who we knew well) escorted me to the ambulance and checked me out. They changed the splint my husband had put on to a pillow acting as a splint. They wanted to transport me, but I felt that pulling them from the scene could mean some else not getting the attention they needed. Instead of them taking me, we had our safety officer take me the Emergency room. At the ER, I was diagnosed with a broken arm. I had split the radius on my left arm down the middle and part of the bone had been twisted around. This did require surgery and therapy, which I have recovered approximately 98% use of my left wrist/arm. Later (the next week) at our fire dept. business meeting, I found out that the firefighters that saw me come off estimate that I took about 9 foot fall. Also I found out that the object that had been in my left hand the whole time I was being thrown around on the truck and let go as I came off, was the fire hose. I now wish that I had gone on in with the ambulance crew do to the fact that I feel there were other injuries that were not addressed at the ER that have shown up since, but since the ER doctor did not note any other injuries, the workers compensation would not authorize any other x-rays/checks unless it dealt with my left arm/wrist. I had been told by the adjuster with worker's comp. that they would not cover any other checks/x-rays since the ER had not noted anything else. I have since then, been told by others in the medical field, that I could have probably contested it and gotten the checks done. LESSONS LEARNED: We have discussed this multiple times. I thought possibly restraints in the cage to secure us in, but what if we rolled the person could be trapped/killed. One thing is that when we acquired our new grass truck, we put the "fire fighting cages" behind the cab to cut down the snapping actions from being on the back. I truly feel that this was a "freak" accident that I do not know what could have been done to prevent it (considering the equipment we had at that time.) I am not sure that even with the fighting cages behind the cab this might not have happened.  

Tuesday, October 3, 2006  HONORING OUR FALLEN. Click the link on the full story page for an outstanding Honoring Our Fallen clip. The important work that the Wildland Firefighter Foundation does is worthy of all our attention---check them out at: www.wffoundation.org Also check out the Colorado Firecamp www.coloradofirecamp.com  

In a warm day of August I was the acting officer on an engine company. There were two of us working on the rig for the day. We were dispatched to a report of a slow moving brush fire. My partner and I responded to the call and upon our arrival found a fairly small 30 x 30 area of brush that was nearly out. Bystanders had drug a garden hose over and knocked down the majority, if not all the fire (damn do goobers). The only thing to do was basically further dampen the area and mop up any hot spots. This was probably over kill but would certainly stop any chance of rekindle. I grabbed a small diameter/forestry line and proceeded to march up a small hill while my partner charged the pump/line. Because the fire was pretty much non existent I chose not to wear any further PPE other than my class C wear which was typical station wear for a warm summer day. As I started sweeping the area with water, my partner caught my attention. To my surprise, just a few feet away and fairly camouflaged in some scotch broom was a VERY LARGE (3 x 3 foot) paper hornet nest. This nest was very busy and the mean aggressive black (hornet) kind. I was seconds away from severely disturbing it and I know the outcome wouldn't have been pretty. I may have been able to knock down a few but as I mentioned, we were only using a small dia. line flowing a low pressure.The moral of the story is, had I been wearing my long sleeve brush gear, gloves and helmet my chances or number of stings/bites would have been considerably reduced. Generally speaking I'm not allergic to bees but enough bites could screw up anyone. I let my guard down on what I felt was a piddly call. Wear your PPE it may serve as dual purpose and continue to watch out for one another. The more eyes and ears the better thanks!!!  

Monday, August 14, 2006  Got this from one of our wildland gurus. 
A successful shelter deployment is rare. 
 In fact these pics are form the eye of the storm......
   

Saturday, July 22, 2006  On or about June 10, 06 our VFD got a call on a brush Fire. After arriving , we called for additional companies. A friend of mind was near by on a dozer and I asked him if he would go around the fire in very heavy brush to cut a line. I & one other fire firefighter was in Booster One, a 1000 gallon tanker, fighting fire on the east side when we ran up on the Dozer . Wind had got up & fire was heading toward us ( very near) . A water dept man on the otherside of a big fence got out of his truck and was talking to my friend on the dozer. I parked the fire truck to where my fire fighter & my self could pull hose off and fight fire. My firefighting parter got on the back of truck and I got out of truck and walk toward the dozer and my parter said don't move. WHAT" What" Hell I can't hear a thing with that Pump running. "WHAT" . He started ponting down at my feet. What & the hell is he talking about. THen my ears pin in on the sounds. And then I saw I was standing in the middle of Rattle Snakes. Yes....SNAKES, BIG ONES one standing up looking at me and rattleing about to strike, another at my feet, one where I was just at and another where I wanted to go..OH MY ! I called to the dozer buddy (Dwyane) Help me ! He seen from the top of his dozer that I was into Rattle Snakes.....his dozer headed to me when I jump darn near straight up onto the track of his dozer, not to mention I even jumped on him into his seat & could not that him enough! I stayed on dozer while he cleared the area so I could get back to my apparatus . Dwayne (on the dozer) said he tryed to warn us when we arrived, but with his dozer and our truck w/the engine running I could not hear and we just didn't not look for snakes. But from now on I do. Close call!
 

Monday, May 22, 2006   Click below for 3 new WILDLAND FIRE CLOSE CALL reports. 2 are additional wildland (prescribed fire) close calls that resulted in injury. These are the 24 and 72 hr. reports for the New Holland Fire and the 24 hr. report for the Sabine Fire.  

Tuesday, May 9, 2006    I guess you can classify my close call as a "take a look at the whole picture before you jump into it" I have been on my local volunteer dept for about 3 years, I was the senior man on a grass truck heading to a reported grass fire 40 miles out of town. When we arrived we found a small fire in the grass along the rail road tracks, while we were getting the fire knocked down I noticed another fire starting up about 100 feet south of us, we got our original fire out and proceded to the next, while putting that fire out I looked over my shoulder and noticed another small fire oh the other side of the tracks.
I started to get concerned as to what was starting these fire, it was at this time that I started getting pelted in the face my burning coal pieces, when I looked up I saw that the train coal car that was on the tracks right beside us was on fire and the burning coal was being blown into the grass! We handle these calls all the time so I wasn't overly concerned, after we got the grass fires out, we pulled the truck along side the rail car and I instructed one of the other firefighters to help me pull the hose off the truck and we would go up on top of the car and put some water on it.
I am well aware that water and coal don't mix, standard procedure for us is to climb up on the car and at least wet down the top layer to keep some of the burning coal from blowing out. The firefighter that was helping me had made it up onto the car and I had the hose over my shoulder and started to climb the ladder on the side of the car.... this is where things went very bad.
I made it about 3/4 of the way up the ladder when I for some reason lost my grip, I fell about 12 feet and landed in a standing position before falling to the ground, I must have gone into shock right away because I tried to get up and walk but my left ankle was shattered and I fell to the ground again, the ambulance came to get me and when I got the hospital the doctors here in town said its one of the worst breaks they have ever seen, I "exploded my ankle into 35 pieces"
I was life flighted to a trauma center in Denver where I eventually went through 3 surgeries and spent from July to December on crutches and a cane going though physical therapy. I am back to firefighting but I will never forget what happened, and the lesson I learned is to stop and take a look at the whole scene, we seem to get into the mode of oh its just a grass fire and just dive into it, stop and look at what else might come up and cause problems.

 

Saturday, April 22, 2006   While working a brush fire in Palm Beach County Florida, a Department of Forestry plow made plans to cut a fire line around the fire. The Incident Commander from PBCFR made a radio report for all units to clear out of the woods because a plow would be moving in. Without giving time for the crews to retreat safely, the plow driver went in and started to cut the line. A firefighter from a PBCFR brush unit did not have time to get clear and was nearly run over by the plow.

The firefighter on the ground was able to get the attention of the plow driver by spraying him in the face with a booster line. Had he not gotten his attention, the outcome could have been tragic.

Lesson learned: Give plenty of time after the warning is made. All personnel should be operating on the same radio channel. All units should give a PAR when exiting the woods. The par should include the area that the unit will be using to stage. On scene where multiple agencies are working, all crews need to be aware of who is working where, and with what equipment.  

Thursday, March 16, 2006  By Tom Kenworthy, USA TODAY 3-15-06
DENVER — There could be a new weapon to help battle wildfires this year -- a very big weapon.
An Oregon-based aviation company has spent $40 million to convert a Boeing 747 into a firefighting air tanker that can deliver a monster payload of water or chemical retardant on forest and grass fires.

The modified version of the largest passenger jet in service must receive certification from the Federal Aviation Administration and pass a series of tests conducted by the U.S. Forest Service. Pat Norbury, head of the Forest Service's aviation operations, said the huge tanker could be used this year in what is likely to be a major fire season in the parched West.

The jet can dump 20,500 gallons of firefighting liquids, nearly seven times the capacity of the largest tanker approved by the Forest Service for use this season. Using a pressurized delivery system, the jet can drop its load from as high as 800 feet, compared with the usual 150-200 feet, and can do multiple drops during a single mission rather than have to dump its entire load at once.

Still to be determined, Norbury said, is whether the jet can deliver fire retardant in different concentrations? ranging from 1 pound to 8 pounds per 100 square feet of ground? to give firefighters flexibility depending on an area's terrain and vegetation. Also, ground-based fire commanders must be convinced it would be useful on forest fires in the mountains, where that kind of flying can be especially hazardous.

Norbury said the final test would come on an actual fire.

"They've bought a ticket into the dance, but they aren't on the dance floor yet," he said. "If they don't meet our criteria, we are not going to look at it."

The cost of using the converted Boeing 747-200 is unclear. The U.S. government contracts with private operators for air tankers and has available 16 planes that each can carry about 3,000 gallons of liquid.

The company outfitting the 747, Evergreen International Aviation, declined to comment on the jet until it unveils the tanker in demonstrations beginning this month in California, Idaho and Alaska. Evergreen's website says the company's jet "will put out fires in less time, require fewer aircraft, flight missions and hours flown."

In the past five years, the government's aerial firefighting program has been plagued by a series of crashes and the grounding of air tankers for safety reasons. In 2004, the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management terminated contracts for 33 tankers after determining there was no program to ensure the planes' safety.

That decision followed a report by the National Transportation Safety Board into three accidents that found the agencies had failed to guarantee safe operations in part because not enough information was available on the planes' flight histories and the stresses on aircraft during firefighting operations.

Eight of the planes were returned to service after the government contracted with a private company and Sandia National Laboratories to evaluate the tankers' airworthiness.

Bill Broadwell, who led the Aerial Firefighting Industry Association, a trade group that folded last year after some of its members went out of business, said the supertanker offers promise in fighting fires shortly after they begin, when heavy water and retardant drops can be particularly effective. He said the jet would be useful over flat terrain, but "how well it will behave in forests, I don't know," because a big jet will not be as nimble as smaller tankers.

Norbury said, "Just because you can get wet stuff to fall from an aircraft on top of a fire doesn't mean it's necessarily a useful tool for us."

 

Thursday, December 1, 2005  Texas firefighters warned to expect extreme fire behavior, increasingly dangerous conditions With critically dry fuels in place, and low relative humidity with moderate to strong winds forecast for the next three to five days, all fire personnel should be aware of the potential for extreme fire behavior occurring on the head and flanks of wildland fires they are responding to. This includes fast running grass fires and high intensity brush fires with spotting adding to the control problems. Think safety first! • Is there unburned fuel between you and the fire? • How fast is the fire moving? • Do you have escape routes identified, should you need to exit quickly? • Expect fires under these conditions to burn hot and be hard to control. Within the past week, Texas lost one volunteer firefighter to a tanker rollover, and another received second-degree burns to his face, neck and hands when a brush truck he was on the back of was burned over. Are your firefighters wearing protective gear, including gloves? Drought conditions are expected to persist for the next three months across much of Texas, so there is no relief in site. Some of the common denominators of fire behavior on tragedy fires are as follows: • Most incidents happen on smaller fires or on isolated portions of larger fires. • Most fires are innocent in appearance before unexpected shifts in wind direction and/or speed results in flare-ups or extreme fire behavior. In some cases, tragedies occur in the mop-up stage. • Flare-ups generally occur in deceptively light fuels, such as grass and light brush. It has been several years since we’ve had a fire season comparable to this. If your department has firefighters with less than five years of experience, it is likely they have not seen fire behavior like we’re experiencing. Please take time to conduct safety briefings and hold a wildland fire behavior refresher. Contact the Texas Forest Service if you would like more information.  

Monday, September 26, 2005  FIRE REPORT-FIREFIGHTER FATALITY: California-Apparatus Crash This is the departmental report of findings from the fatality accident that occurred August 6, 2005 with a Line of Duty Death of the Riverside County, Calif. Fire Department Apparatus Crash-Ejection of Firefighter (download)  

Wednesday, August 31, 2005  Below is a report from CDF of the fatal accident in Riverside County, California where a fire fighter was killed in a traffic accident.(click here)  

Wednesday, August 31, 2005  Below is the CDF GREEN SHEET report of a near miss when a firefighter fell out of an engine while responding to a call. (click here)  

Wednesday, August 31, 2005  Below is the CDF Green Sheet for a near miss vehicle accident involving a CDF Bulldozer-Transport Combination with a privately owned big rig truck. Click Here