On June 9th at around 1400, the Caney VFD in Caney Ok was
dispatched to a wildland fire. on arrival the attack crews were split. one
truck was used to attack the fire in the open pasture, while the second crew
was assigned to extinguish the fire that had crossed a fence into a wooded
area. the second crew was working away from their truck. While operating on
foot firefighter Jennings saw the 4 foot timber rattler crawling through the
brush towards McBride, after several attempts by McBride to persuade the snake
to leave, firefighter Jennings had to use a shovel to pin the snakes head and
finally used it to kill the snake. McBride stated that “the snake just
kept coming at me”. Most of our snake encounters are just seeing
various breeds fleeing the area, this was our first experience with a large
rattlesnake while firefighting.
