Here are a couple of photos from the Mother Lode fire on the Mt. Hood National Forest in Oregon. Both are from the fire’s InciWeb site, but the photographers and dates are unknown.
The photo, titled “Falling a Hazard Tree”, has this caption on InciWeb: “Class A Faller retreating to his safety zone as a tree ‘Barber Chairs’ during hazard tree falling operations.”
Hmmm. Really? A Class A faller who should be limited to trees smaller than 12 8 inches in diameter? And if there’s a face cut (or undercut), which tends to reduce the chance of a barber chair and control the direction of fall, it was very small. “Barber chair” is when the tree splits vertically as seen in this photo. It can be very dangerous because the portion of the tree’s trunk that springs back can injure or kill the faller if they are standing near the tree when it occurs.
Mother Lode fire observer
From InciWeb, September 18, 2011:
Estacada, Oregon – Kidd’s Incident Management Team, Great Basin 4, is currently managing the Mother Lode Fire on the Mount Hood National Forest. The fire, which began as a lightening strike on August 26, 2011, is estimated at 2,132 acres and continues to very slowly grow near the confluence of Mother Lode and Battle Creeks. This pattern has remained virtually the same over the last several days as weather over the fire returns to a more seasonal model.
A Kentucky Wildland Firefighter has been seriously injured with burns and blunt force trauma yesterday morning while working a 12-acre wildfire in Livingston County. Don Lam, Forest Ranger Technician for the Kentucky Division of Forestry is currently in serious condition at Deaconess Hospital in Evansville after being airlifted following the accident.
Initial investigations report that Ranger Lam was struck by a rolling log, a burning snag approximately 10 ft in length that broke loose and rolled off a bluff. The impact has left Ranger Lam unconscious and with serious injuries including second degree burns. We’ll post updates as they become available on our home page.
Firefighter John Curry. Photo by Volusia County Fire Services
A 17-month investigation by the Florida State Fire Marshal’s office identified a number of mistakes that contributed to the death of firefighter John Curry during chain saw training on November 27, 2007. Curry was 30 years old and had been a member of Volusia County Fire Services for 10 months. He was training to be a member of the elite Firewalker Wildland Team and left behind a wife and two children.
The incident occurred during a training class at the Volusia County Fire Training Center near Datona Beach, Florida.
According to the report the trainees watched only 2 hours of a 4 hour training video. Then during tree felling field training, the cuts on a pine tree were not completed properly, causing the tree to fall in an unexpected direction. It fell onto Curry’s escape route, killing him. The report said there was no one at the training site to keep him from running where the tree eventually fell.
The State Fire Marshal’s office issued a Notice of violation for:
Failed to provide adequate training to meet “Trained Commensurate to Duty” requirement.
Failed to provide a safe workplace.
This was the first death at the training center which was established in 1988. Nearly 15,000 firefighters receive training there each year.
HERE is a November 27, 2007 WFTV.com report about the accident.
UPDATE: April 8, 2009 @ 6:30 a.m.
The State Fire Marshal’s report is available on our Documents page. According to the report, Mr. Curry, the victim, had not previously received any formal training on chain saw use or tree felling. During their training that day, they viewed half of a four-hour video from the National Wildfire Coordinating Group S-212 Chainsaw Use course.
Photo from the cover of the Florida State Fire Marshal’s report
Mr. Curry was the swamper while another trainee was felling a snag, a dead pine tree that was 40 feet in height and 18 inches in diameter. Neither were fully trained.
The report says:
The cuts into the tree appear to have been made in such a manner that the tree had a “hang-point” rather than the “hinge” described in the video. This caused the tree to turn counter-clockwise as it began to fall, which caused the tree to move 135 degrees from its intended fall. When the tree started its fall, the assigned instructor, who was already half way down the escape route, saw the direction the tree was falling, ran the rest of the way down the escape route (away from the tree base), later turning 90 degrees to the left to get out of the tree’s way.
Mr. Curry also ran down the escape route and was struck by the tree trunk and killed. The report said if he had stayed with the sawyer he most likely would not have been injured.
According to the NWCG Field Manager’s Course Guide, it should take 24 to 36 hours to put on S-212. Mr. Curry and 13 other firefighters were participating in a monthly drill which included a “refresher course for qualified operators culminating with the felling of three dead trees”.
Aside from the issue of a shortened training course, starting untrained firefighters on a 40-foot high, 18″ diameter snag, is ill advised at best. Snags are extremely difficult to fall safely even for experienced fallers. I used to say, “Mama said don’t f**k with snags!”. The are unpredictable, holding wood has little effect, tops can break off, and they usually have many widow-making dead limbs that could fall at any time.
Until it was replaced by a plastic hard hat, I used to wear an aluminum hard hat that had a dent in the top put there by a falling limb while I was cutting a snag on a fire. Another large limb that fell at the same time broke the back of my swamper. Mama said “Don’t f**k with snags”.
Our condolences to the family of firefighter John Curry.
The National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s Safety and Health Working Team has issued a “2008 Safety Gram” which can be found HERE.
Below is the cover letter that was attached:
To: Chair, National Wildfire Coordinating Group
From: Chair, Safety and Health Working Team
Date: February 2, 2009
Subject: 2008 SAFETY GRAM
The 2008 SAFETY GRAM is attached. It summarizes reported wildland fire fatalities, burnovers/entrapments and other serious accidents for all wildland fire management organizations throughout the United States in 2008.
Twenty-five fatalities occurred in 2008 when employees were performing wildland fire management activities. This is a substantial increase from the nine fatalities that were reported in 2007. The 2008 fatalities are listed by category below:
Driving – 2: Two fatalities occurred while firefighters were responding to a wildland fire.
Entrapment/Burnover – 1: One fatality occurred while firefighter was doing fire reconnaissance.
Medical Emergencies – 3: Three fatalities have occurred; one responding to fire, two heart attacks while fighting fire.
Hazard Tree/Snag – 1: One fatality occurred; firefighter was struck by falling tree top.
Aviation – 14: One fatality occurred when a S.E.A.T. crashed. One fatality occurred in a medical helicopter mid-air collision. Nine fatalities occurred when an S-61N crashed and burned. Three fatalities occurred when a P2V retardant plane crashed and burned on take-off.
Other – 4: Two individuals (VFD and Deputy Sheriff) hit by semi while directing traffic near fire. One fatality occurred when firefighter fell from cliff while scouting fire. One fatality occurred when a grader operator jumped from equipment and sustained head injuries.
Accident prevention is enhanced when firefighters and fire managers are made aware of serious accidents that have occurred over the year and can identify where our future safety emphasis areas should be. Please provide wide distribution of the 2008 SAFETY GRAM to your respective agencies and organizations. The SHWT will also distribute the Safety Gram via NWCG Safety Alert System and post to the SHWT website.
Please feel free to contact me at (208) 387-5175 or michelle_ryerson at nifc.blm.gov if you have any questions or need additional information.
Here is the beginning of an article in the Great Falls Tribune about the hazards of snags.
Weston Spotted Eagle stuck yellow plugs in his ears, picked up his chainsaw and went to work cutting down a potential killer. Advertisement
“Falling!” he shouted.
When he was finished, the forest fire near Neihart was a safer place to work.
The old lodgepole, its shallow root system compromised, could have tipped over on its own and landed on one of Spotted Eagle’s co-workers, who are firefighters.
Falling trees, which last week sent one of Spotted Eagle’s colleagues to the hospital and killed a firefighter in California, have always been a threat in the unpredictable workplace of the wildland firefighter. There are 34 fires burning nationwide, including three in Montana.
But forests with aging, diseased or previously burned trees, which can topple seemingly out of nowhere, are a growing concern in today’s fire camps, fire officials say.
“There’s a large number of dead and dying trees in the woods, and those trees tend to fall over,” said Dick Mangan, a wildland fire consultant who is retired from the U.S. Forest Service.
Accidents, vehicle crashes, heart attacks and burnovers accounted for 89 percent of the 310 wildland firefighting deaths between 1990 and 2006, according a report by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group.
The rest of the article is HERE.
National Park Service firefighter Andrew Palmer was killed during a tree falling operation in northern California on July 25.
The Safety and Health Working Team, part of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, on January 15 released a “Safety Gram” listing the wildland fire related fatalities in 2007.
“Nine fatalities occurred in 2007 when employees were performing wildland fire management activities. This is a substantial decrease from the 24 fatalities that were reported in 2006. Also noteworthy is the absence of any entrapment or burnover related fatalities.
Aviation – 1: Fatality occurred when helicopter was performing logistical support.
Driving – 3: Fatalities occurred when firefighters were returning from a prescribed fire (1) and training (2).
Hazard Tree/Snag – 1: Fatality occurred when a tree fell on a firefighter during chain saw training.
Heart Attacks – 2: Fatalities occurred following the Work Capacity Test (pack test) and firefighting.
Other – 2: Fatalities occurred when a dozer rolled over while constructing fire line (1) and by electrocution (1).”
