Last summer a firefighter received severe burns to his back, both legs, and left arm after a drip torch attached to the pack on his back leaked fuel which ignited. The accident occurred September 9, 2015 on the Perdida Fire managed by the Bureau of Land Management northwest of Taos, New Mexico. The firefighter was one of seven igniters assigned to the fire which had a total of nine personnel.
The individual who was injured had been igniting with a drip torch while he carried an extra one attached to the pack on his back. The torch leaked fuel which caught fire.
From the recently released report about the incident:
…Igniter #1 saw that the victim’s line gear and back of his legs were on fire so he tried to put the fire out with dirt and by patting at the flame with his gloved hand. Igniter #1 told the victim to get on the ground and they both fell together. The victim got back up and ran while trying to get his glove off and then his pack, successfully. The victim then stumbled but regained his footing briefly before falling back to the ground. At this point, Igniters #1 and #3 converged and patted out the fire on the victim’s pants…<
The photos below are from the report.
One of the issues pointed out in the report is a significant delay in requesting a medevac. About 40 minutes elapsed before medevac was requested, and that was for a ground ambulance even though the victim apparently had second and third degree burns. That request was quickly upgraded to transport by helicopter. The report concluded that according to the burn injury protocol a medevac should have been initiated upon the determination of second and third degree burns and the remoteness of the incident.
The medevac pilot was unable to communicate with the personnel on the ground because he could not program the frequency into the helicopter’s radio.
The lat/long was called in to dispatch from the incident scene 23 minutes after the helicopter was requested (about an hour after the accident occurred), and four minutes before it landed at the extrication point.
The report recommended that firefighters should avoid carrying extra drip torches on their packs during ignition operations.
We did not see anything in the report about how fire resistant clothing that has not been washed for an extended period of time may, or may not, cause the clothing to lose some of its resistance to fire. But it did say “PPE [personal protection equipment] should be kept clean and inspected often for damage and fuel contamination”.
this is probably a stupid comment,i’m disabled now and use a powerchair,ive been looking at the tracked self-propelled units that you back your chair into,i also saw some that a able bodied person could operate,i mini tracked ATV i guess…they have the “rubberband” type tracks which were used on halftracks and modern ag tractors,the fire dozers use metal tracks…so environmentally…why couldn’t a fire fighter officer or just a worker,maybe me..drive one to carry the extra torch fuel,or extra torches…water food ect…one company ..those guys at howe and howe … http://www.howeandhowe.com/
have a custom built 4×4 fire truck…but they also have the small tracked remote controlled rig with a high pressure nozzle on it for remote firefighting…..but damn..why couldnt one be used for accessing fire with humans?.
Dave Kaufman,
If all areas on fires were vehicle accessible, there would be no need for Type 1 Shot Crews. When equipment can’t complete the line, handcrews go in.
Other Topic:
Firefighter Hygiene and cleanliness. The majority are not structural firefighters or CAL Fire, Firefighters, we do not have the luxury of being indoors, or have a hotel room every other night, or only being available for a 24 hour period. We work, live, eat, and sleep outside, on the ground in the dirt, ash and smoke. We operate on underfunded budgets, with minimal equipment; issued 2 nomex shirts and 2 nomex pants at the start of the season. We purchase our own crew shirts and until last year purchased our own 300-500 dollar boots.
Generally on assignment Shots are expected to rise around 0500 work till 2200, shoot for 5-7 hours of sleep if possible, wake up and repeat. We have no excess time when things are moving; IE Pepardness Level of 3-5. So to assume cleanliness is something that comes easy and accessible for SHOT crews in an active season, you are either miss-informed or delusional.
With all being said, I sever as medical for my crew, and can vouch that our members are very motivated to remove clothing that may become saturated in drip fuel or saw fuel; as soon as it becomes apparent to them. FYI, drip fuel and Gas fuel will inflict a painful chemical burn, once it reaches the skin and is left exposed long enough, so most persons have no desire to harness “PRide” to maintain an image. (Bar oil on the other hand has a flash point of 450+, has minimal effect when exposed to skin, and a stable substance in comparison to other chemicals we are exposed to. So the risk of dirt, soot, and bar oil on nomex is not of significant concern.
In an ideal/perfect world we would sleep in a hotel everynight, have 14-21 new pairs of nomex for each shift and would be afforded the luxury to shower nightly, rather than have to weigh the option of an extra hour of sleep vs being clean for an extra 5 hrs while sleeping.
This will not be the last time this happens. It is a standard practice that has been normalized due to the need of efficient burn ops. I’m sure the response to this will be another example of the standard approach to safety. Taking the easiest and cheapest step of saying, “this is dumb, don’t do that anymore” and moving on. How hard is it to provide firefighters with an effective and safe way to carry fuel? We are asked directly and indirectly to do this, why don’t we have effective equipment to perform this task safely? Nobody likes to have a drip torch hanging from their pack and certainly no one likes fuel all over them. Also, I’m as guilty as the next with wearing filthy gear. Nonetheless, to all of those above who simply say it’s not possible, really? We helicopter in toilet paper and drinking water, but Nomex would be out of the question. Realize it may be three or four days in some cases before this happens, but it is totally possible. But who are we kidding, even if there was fresh nomex laying next to our food and water, the majority of us wouldn’t touch it until there is a culture shift. Some of us would still be wearing jeans and a t-shirt if it wasn’t mandated otherwise… (I hate rules for every little thing, so perhaps we should all lead up a bit more in this category.)
The hand held torch is old.
Any thoughts for a design?
to get the conversation started – something like a big Sig bottle without the wick in the top?
Different fuel type – more of a jelly consistency?
Interesting comments above, and seem to highlight one issue – clean(er) gear is NOT a luxury, it is a safety issue. Yes, sleep is important, but so is wearing non-soaked gear. Filth is one thing, fuel is another. I know people first hand and have known of whole crews that specifically chose not to change gear, shower, etc., as a challenge, or sign of “I’ve worked more than the next guy” or whatever. I know of a first-hand account of a firefighter who chose not to eat when told he’d have to wash his hands first. That kind of stuff is just stupid. I can’t count the number of sawyers I’ve seen with arms and shoulders saturated with bar oil. Would you wear a cracked helmet instead of swapping it out? I would never expect a firefighter to have fresh bright yellows or smell lemony fresh every day, but when you CAN swap out, it is for your own health and welfare. To specifically choose not to when you have the option doesn’t make any sense.
Interesting to hear a bunch of arguments…. As a career ‘shot, I agree with Krs that the last things on my mind WHEN I go back to camp are laundry and clean clothes. Twenty extra minutes of sleep go a long way when asked to work the hours we do. Let’s add onto that the fact that I live in a crew haul, with multiple folks and I have to keep my personal belongings to a minimum. Me carrying 7 sets of nomex on a Type 4 incident just isn’t going to happen.
As for the fact that homeboy ran after catching on fire…. This is highlighting his inexperience level. Oxygen and wind fuel flames. Maybe we should be looking at his overhead and their lack of teaching ability if they didn’t convey the fact that a torch on your pack, dirty nomex and how to stop, drop, and roll weren’t important issues to cover. Maybe we’re all asked to do too much if I can’t get enough sleep, and mid-level OH aren’t teaching the little things. Or, maybe we’re just hit with so much information, we can’t possible have the time to relay it all obln down to the FFT2.
what struck me as odd was when i read the burned man got up and ran…i know that panic ans shock can do wierd things to even the best trained…but gosh..that sort of upset me….id hope to not run if on fire.
I think this highlights the need for more fireline trained medical personnel. These people need to be single resources and with gear they are familiar with. Earth to the land management agencies, state and federal, injuries and incidents don’t just happen on large fires. NM state forestry won’t contract with local agencies for medical gear and personnel. They will only call for ambulances from locals, all fireline medics ordered are out of state contractors. We as the front lines need to stand up for our safety and speak up. Pay for line medics, equipment and training. Medial personnel with crews and engines are a great start, but the single resources that are trained and immediately available is the ticket to saving lives and starting higher medical treatment. Sorry, soap box and head banging against the wall with trying to better our safety.
We sat through an EMR class last winter. Several from the fire department took the class.
EMR is no replacement for EMT but it gives a good basic level of training for line personnel. Might be worth a look for you guys.
Also, the EMR class is 80 hours, whereas the new EMT class is 180, used to be 110.
As far as I know, an EMR is not a red carded position, but Division should be glad to have them if they have a basic jump kit.
Of course, we should all be thinking Med-Evac before injury.
Lotsa things to think about, like how sometimes a helicopter is not the fastest option, so fourth.
The whole “one is none, two is one” theory really works for having a medevac plan.
In earlier threads, the question was asked: what can be done to prevent firefighter’s deaths? A thought has been circulating in the wildland fire management business that postulates if the land is burned on successive years, the fuel load is reduced to the point that large, stand replacing fires will not happen, and the occurrence of fatality fires will similarly be decreased.
I’ve postulated that the brush will be back within five years, and the benefits of reduced fuel load will not affect the numbers of fatality fires. In areas where man has not excluded fires, the large damaging fires still occur. When fires are allowed to burn, eventually bad things will happen. In this instance, the fire was started by a lightning strike and allowed to burn. During the corralling efforts, a firefighter was burned, and will probably bear the scars for his life. I think a reasonable question is, how long will the resource benefit of management last, and was it worth having a firefighter scarred?
I understand that people will get hurt and killed in this line of work; it’s inherently risky, but do more people get hurt in the corralling effort, or do more get hurt by fire exclusion? How long will the resource benefit last?
My observation on the line is that fully 1/2 of our Hotshot crew members are wearing gas-soaked Nomex shirts and trousers. Seems to be a source of pride in being dirty, but undermines the protection that Nomex offers. Supervisory resonsibility at the Crew, Division, Ops and Safety levels to prevent burn injuries is sorely missing.
Really, 1/2 of Hotshots? Pride? What a great opinion. For the sake of discussion, I would be curious to know at what level of background you have to make these observations?
At what point does INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY take precedence in ones own safety?
Being dirty is a sense of pride? REALLY? Showering and laundry service is very LAST on my mind when it comes to being on an assignment. Guess what, I’m still alive with all digits and skin layers in-tact.
Krs, you seem to be saying that in spite of wearing PPE that has not been washed recently and may be nasty and oil soaked you are “still alive with all digits and skin layers in-tact.” Well, that is a powerful argument. I’m now convinced that all firefighters should follow your lead since you have proven beyond a doubt that the PPE experts are wrong and its OK to simply not worry about wearing filthy fireline clothing and line gear. (sarcasm, by the way)
Almost as powerful as 1/2 of all Hotshots are wearing fuel soaked PPE as a matter of PRIDE.
If YOU are not smart enough to realize that your pants or line gear are soaked in fuel and bar oil, and that you should probably change them out, then maybe I would prefer not to work next to you. I just flipped through some of the training material, and PTB’s and failed to see in there where it’s the OSC2’s job to ensure that Joe FFT2 knows when to change out his dirty pants.
All the PPE in the world doesn’t account for poor awareness and self responsibility, or lack of clear expectations.
What’s not being mentioned is how easy it is to criticize from the outside about how PPE should be clean. When the reality of it is, having the luxury of a full service laundry facility at your disposal is rarely an option. We don’t like having to wear dirty PPE day in and day out, it sucks! Talk to me after YOU spend 14 straight, 16 hour days pinned in the wilderness with nothing more then what’s in the pack on your back. I promise that if those who criticize had to carry 80 lbs worth of gear on their backs for 2 weeks, a bottle of snuggle won’t be in that pack. And the fact that some believe that carrying a torch on your side has something to do with ones pride is ridiculous. It’s a burden if anything. A torch on your pack is not for building pride, it’s a tool that we carry that could be our last or even only defense against death. I urge people to research how many lives have been saved by burning out a safety zone. You use drip torches, not a book of matches. There is nobody to impress on a fire line and nobody is going to feel empowered by carrying around 30 lbs of drip torch and fuel all day long. Try it, and see if you still feel awesome after a 16 hour night shift. Pride and dirty clothes should not be the focus point here and are irrelevant issues. The issue is negligence. Likely due to exhaustion because of lack of a good night sleep because you slept in a pile of rocks and dirt for a total of 3 hours, or the lack of a decent meal that wasn’t delivered in a 5gal bucket by helicopter, and a general uneasy feeling because you would really like to put on some clean clothes but it’s not an option, or any one of a hundred different things that we deal with on a daily basis to accomplish an assignment. Whatever the case may be, a full inspection of that particular torch was obviously overlooked. Rubber gaskets and fuel are not a great mix and require maintenance. This was obviously overlooked or it would not be an issue. Its easy to get complacent and overlook the small things when you’re fighting fire. I’ve spent the last 15 years of my life doing this, and to those who think it’s easy control things like dirty clothes, think agan. I saw this news feed, and was instantly interested in what people had to say about it. And I’m quite frankly disgusted that there is nowhere near enough respect being shown to the talented and brave men and women out there that dedicate their lives to protecting the lives and livelihoods of those who want to criticize our smelly, dirt covered butt cracks. My final word is to any firefighters that may read this. Don’t get complacent, focus on your mission and stay alive. Remember we are not in this for the glory, we do it because Smoke Eaters rule, and God will always keep the gates open for a firefighter. Stay safe brothers.
Whew! Mr. Rohr is fired up.
Two points.
1. No one is saying carrying a drip torch on their line gear is because of pride. But someone did mention that some firefighters prefer to wear dirty PPE because of pride. They mistakenly believe others will be impressed, but could not be more wrong.
2. Everyone understands that if it is not possible to change into clean PPE, the firefighter should not be blamed. It’s simply common sense. However, if it IS available and for whatever reason they choose not to replace oil-soaked PPE, that’s a problem. For example if the crew is conducting prescribed fires and is working out of their home base and going home every night, then they have no excuse.
Dutch Creek Protocol?