A Calaveras County employee working on a brush clearing project along a road in the scar from the Butte Fire was killed Monday March 18 by a rolling tree or log. County Public Works personnel were working with a CAL FIRE Conservation Camp crew inside the perimeter of the fire that burned 71,000 acres south of Jackson, California in September, 2015.
Kevin Raggio, Calaveras County Coroner, identified the man as 57-year-old Ansel John Bowman.
A very brief “Blue Sheet”preliminary report released by CAL FIRE said the county employee “was hit by a previously downed tree and suffered fatal injuries”. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Butte Fire destroyed 233 residences and 175 outbuildings, and may have caused the deaths of two civilians.
