Friday afternoon a fire that started in an outbuilding near Buckner, Missouri had spread to several acres when a brush truck operated by the Fort Osage Fire Protection District became surrounded by heavy smoke.
The crew left the truck and attempted to escape from the area, announcing “May Day” on the radio. Other crews immediately came to their aid but two of the personnel on the brush truck were injured, and the truck was destroyed.
One of the firefighters was released from the hospital Friday night and the other remains in serious condition.
The fire ultimately grew to 15 acres and destroyed several small outbuildings before being brought under control at 4:05 p.m. Friday. Multiple homes were endangered but were saved by firefighters.
Ben Elkind was seriously injured during a training parachute jump on May 15. During his ninth year as a smokejumper (with six years before that on a hotshot crew) he sustained a dislocated hip and pelvic fracture during a hard landing. During surgery at the hospital they found six fractures and placed three plates and 10 screws to repair the damage.
While Ben is unable to fight fires for an extended length of time, he will not be able to supplement his base income with the usual 1,000 hours of overtime each year which in the past he has depended on to support his wife and two small children.
And then during a full body CT scan a nodule was discovered on his thyroid — meaning, cancer. Ben told Wildfire Today the cancer was caught early and is very treatable.
We have written about Ben previously, but that was before we were aware of the cancer. And the other reason we’re bringing it up now is that yesterday NBC News published a nearly four-minute video story about Ben and other similar examples of injured wildland firefighters.
For more than the last year Ben has been very involved working to improve the working conditions of federal wildland firefighters, being proactive in educating the public and other firefighters about what they can do to improve the pay, classification, health, well-being, and processing of worker’s compensation claims (see photo below). In 2021 he wrote an article that was published in The Oregonian and Wildfire Today. And now he finds himself as one of the examples of what can happen on the job to a wildland firefighter that can seriously affect them and their family.
NFFE meets with Secretary of Labor in Washington, DC, March 16, 2022. L to R: Max Alonzo (NFFE), Bob Beckley (NFFE), Hannah Coolidge (USFS Hotshot), Marty Walsh (Sec. Of Labor), Dane Ostler (USFS – Prevention), Ben Elkind (USFS – Smokejumper), Randy Erwin (NFFE – President), and Jeff Friday (NFFE).
There has been some progress during the last year in establishing a list of presumptive diseases for firefighters.
Pending legislation would create the presumption that firefighters who become disabled by certain serious diseases, contracted them on the job, including heart disease, lung disease, certain cancers, and other infectious diseases. The bipartisan Federal Firefighters Fairness Act, H.R. 2499, passed the House in May and is now in the Senate.
In April the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP), in FECA Bulletin No. 22-07, established a list of cancers and medical conditions for which the firefighter does not have to submit proof that their disease was caused by an on the job injury.
Consider telling your Senators and Representative to pass the Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Classification and Pay Parity Act, H.R.5631. The name of the bill honors smokejumper Tim Hart who died after being injured on a fire in New Mexico in 2021. (More about the bill.) And ask your Senators to pass the Federal Firefighters Fairness Act, H.R. 2499.
You may want to make a donation to the gofundme account set up by the Redmond Smokejumper Welfare Organization to assist Ben and his family.
A smokejumper was seriously injured Sunday May 15 during a training parachute jump. Ben Elkind sustained a dislocated hip and pelvic fracture during a hard landing. During surgery at the hospital they found six fractures and placed three plates and 10 screws to repair the damage.
Ben has been a Smokejumper for the US Forest Service based in Redmond, OR for nine years and worked in fire as a member of the Zig-Zag Hotshots before jumping. He rookied as a smokejumper in Redding, CA, in 2014 then transferred to Redmond in 2015 to be closer to home and his family.
If his name seems familiar it is because on Wildfire Today we reprinted an opinion article he wrote that was published in The Oregonian, titled, “A USFS firefighter in Oregon can be paid more at McDonald’s.” Ben was also a member of a group that traveled to Washington, D.C. in March where they met with White House officials about pay issues and passing the Tim Hart Wildland Firefighter Classification and Pay Parity Act (H.R. 5631). They also talked with Marty Walsh, the Secretary of Labor, who oversees the Office of Worker’s Compensation Programs (OWCP), an agency that has been criticized for slow-walking or failing to appropriately process the claims and pay the medical bills of firefighters injured on the job.
In an ironic twist, a GoFundMe page has been set up for Ben’s family by the Redmond Smokejumpers Welfare Organization, an often necessary step taken by many federal firefighters who are injured on the job. Here is an excerpt from their description on GoFundMe:
Ben has a long road to recovery and will be unable to work for a significant length of time and will be missing out on the overtime that so many wildland firefighters depend on to make a living. We are starting this GoFundMe in order to help Ben and his family through this tough time. Please consider donating to help a firefighter and his family while they support each other on the road to recovery.
Rollover of Balko FD Engine 5 — Oklahoma, April 6, 2022. Photo courtesy of OK Forestry Services.
Updated at 8:30 p.m. CDT May 9, 2022
Just a few hours after we saw the notice from the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center and wrote the piece below about the rollover of an engine in Oklahoma on April 5, Mark informed us that one of the two injured firefighters, Jason Smith, passed away yesterday from his injuries.
Below is an excerpt from a Facebook post by Western Oklahoma Fire Coverage on May 8:
In memory of fallen Firefighter Jason Smith with the Balko Fire department. Just 33 days ago, while fighting the Beaver River Fire in Beaver County, two Balko firefighters were injured when their truck rolled over off of a 6’ embankment. They were flown to Lubbock, TX to the burn unit to receive treatment. Jason was finally able to come home at the end of last month, but today he lost the battle and succumbed to his injuries. Jason leaves behind his wife, 2 daughters and a 3 1/2 month old grandson Emmett that he was very proud of.
We send our sincere condolences to the family, friends, and co-workers of Mr. Smith.
5:08 p.m. CDT May 9, 2022
Two firefighters were injured and later burned in a fire engine rollover in Oklahoma. It happened in the state’s panhandle April 5 on the Beaver River Fire during the initial attack on a vegetation fire 11 miles west of Beaver. (This information was contained in a “24-hour report” about the incident which was distributed by the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center.)
Balko Volunteer Fire Department Engine 5 with two occupants veered slightly off the road onto a gravel shoulder that collapsed. As a result, the engine slid off an embankment approximately six feet in depth and rolled over on its top. Subsequently, an active area of the fire switched directions as it was impacted by strong variable winds. Prior to the fire arriving at the accident scene both occupants were able to self-extricate. However, they sustained 1st and 2nd degree burns to their arms and hands as the fire burned past. In addition, one victim possibly suffered a concussion during the vehicle rollover.
Both firefighters were evacuated from the incident by law enforcement and later flown by air ambulance to a burn center in Lubbock, Texas. Initially the victims were listed in critical condition. When the 24-hour report was issued the next day on April 6, 2022 they were conscious and in ‘Yellow’ status at the burn center.
Rollover of Balko FD Engine 5 — Oklahoma, April 6, 2022. Photo courtesy of OK Forestry Services.
