There have been at least two vehicle accidents involving firefighters working on two of the Idaho megafires we reported on Thursday. Both of them involved single vehicles which through driver error left the road surface and went down an embankment. There were no reports of extremely serious injuries, however the driver on the Mustang Complex was transported to a hospital.
On that fire a Strike Team Leader was following his strike team of engines on a very dusty dirt road and lost visibility in the dust. His vehicle left the road and rolled over, ending up against a tree. From the Facilitated Learning Analysis:
…He doesn’t remember much else after a brief moment of panic. He recalls being pulled out of his pickup with people telling him he had rolled his vehicle and then he can remember being in the ambulance as he was transported to the hospital.
On the Trinity Ridge Fire a Line Safety Officer suddenly became very sleepy, possibly as a result of taking some over the counter medication for “the crud” before going to sleep the night before. He planned to pull into a campground just ahead to rest or sleep, but didn’t make it that far. His vehicle left the road and went down the embankment a few feet and impacted some trees. More information is in the Facilitated Learning Analysis.
We wish both of these firefighters a speedy recovery.
Interesting, just came off a fire east of missoula. The DIVS was determined to have us all “gaggle” our engines at the end of the day. The “only” way off the hill was extremely dusty and got very little water from our strike team of tenders. Numerous times we tried to get our DIVS to release us in small groups rather than the entire division at once. That did not happen. Fortunately we had no accidents, but the 60 minute drive back to ICP would have been safer and more pleasant if he had listened to numerous engine bosses, striketeam leaders, and other operators. Be safe out there.
Jon