Wildfire Today

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Wildfire Today

Tag: injury

Study: Risk factors for injury among federal wildland firefighters

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , 1 Comment on Study: Risk factors for injury among federal wildland firefighters

A student working on her PhD at the University of Iowa wrote her dissertation in 2010 after studying the records of injuries to wildland firefighters. Carla Lea Britton titled her paper “Risk factors for injury among federal wildland firefighters“. We will not attempt to summarize the entire document, but below are some quotes that we thought were interesting in the Conclusions section:

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P. 67: The wildland fire community should expand its focus beyond the investigation of fatalities and embrace new methodologies to evaluate and mitigate the impact of non-fatal occupational injuries in wildland fire.

P. 70: Comprehensive surveillance: The resources currently available to estimate and evaluate the burden of injury in firefighters are found in a diversity of situations and are not, in many cases, suitable for linking. Fire managers should work toward developing a new comprehensive occupational injury surveillance system to capture fire-related injuries, illness and fatalities across the spectrum of wild- and prescribed fires, training activities and types of employment.

P. 70-71: Partnerships: Guidance on the safety and health of wildland firefighters is provided by the NWCG’s Safety and Health Working Team (SHWT). The SHWT’s mission is to improve health and safety through workforce development, leadership and the development of standards using data collection and analysis to validate and prioritize safety issues. While the mission is commendable, the SHWT lacks both the resources and expertise to fully realize its goal. The SHWT is comprised of representatives from the NWCG member agencies. Most of the committee members are the national-level fire safety managers for the agencies they represent. While all have extensive backgrounds in fire suppression, few, if any, have any formal training in occupational health and safety. The SHWT should actively pursue partnerships with either the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health or with university-based researchers to provide additional expertise, particularly in the area of injury epidemiology and prevention, topics on which there have been little research emphasis in the past.

P. 71-72: This project has shown that, even with sub-optimal data collected for other purposes, systematic evaluation of existing data can provide useful hints for prevention and point to areas where further inquiry is likely to be fertile. To move forward, the wildland fire community needs to commit to using existing data to the best advantage possible and to developing new surveillance methods to provide comprehensive information about all wildland firefighter injuries and their circumstances.

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Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Kevin.

West Virginia: firefighter injured after falling 75 feet

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags ,

WHAG is reporting that a firefighter was injured after “falling nearly 75 feet down a cliff” in or near Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia while fighting a vegetation fire. The firefighter was stabilized at the scene and transported to Winchester Medical Center for further treatment.

Bradley Fritts, the incident commander with the Bakerton Fire Company, said the injured firefighter will remain in the hospital until Friday. Mr. Fritts said the fire would be turned over to the National Park Service Wednesday morning.

Firefighter injured by tree felled by another firefighter

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , ,

A firefighter working on the Quaking Fire 40 miles southeast of Fredonia, Arizona was injured by a tree that was being felled by another firefighter on July 24. The firefighter was knocked to the ground and sustained injuries. Several EMTs evaluated, packaged, and arranged for transportation by a National Park Service helicopter to the South Rim Helibase in Grand Canyon National Park. From there a medivac helicopter took the firefighter to the Flagstaff Medical Center for evaluation.

The 273-acre Quaking Fire, reported on July 13, is not being totally suppressed, but is being managed for “protection and resource benefit objectives”.

At least three other fires are burning in the greater Grand Canyon area:

  • Sitgreaves Complex, 5 miles northwest of Parks, Arizona; 2,689 acres.
  • McRae Fire, 5 miles southeast of Tusayan, Arizona; 3,142 acres.
  • Kanabownits Fire, on the Walla Valley Peninsula on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, 270 acres.

The video below was shot on the Sitgreaves Complex July 21, 2014.

 

Indiana: firefighter injured by falling tree

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , ,
Cowles Bog Incident
Cowles Bog Incident. NPS Photo

A firefighter working for Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in northwest Indiana was injured February 7 when a tree uprooted and fell while he was operating a chain saw, limbing or bucking another tree. Here is an excerpt from the 72-hour report:

…An initial estimate of accident tree was 7.5” DBH and approximately 50 – 60 feet tall. Firefighter A was bent over cutting when he was struck across the shoulders by the tree, knocking him to the ground. The force of the impact drove his face onto the motor housing of thechainsaw. His injuries included a severely broken nose, fractured right eye orbit and fractured T-1 vertebrae. Despite his injuries, he had the presence of mind to shut the chainsaw off to prevent further injury. Firefighter A is an experienced sawyer; he was wearing proper safety gear to include eye and ear protection, as well as a hard hat and chaps. Firefighter A was also working with a partner (Firefighter B) and was able to call out to him for help. Examination of the hard hat shows no indication that it was not contacted by the tree. An initial investigation revealed that the accident tree was poorly rooted into soft soil. Winds were calm at the time of the accident and the soil was thawing after recent freezing rain and snow.

Local EMS resources responded to the scene and transported Firefighter A to the local Regional Hospital. Firefighter A was treated for his injuries, which included plastic surgery to repair his facial injuries. Firefighter A was released from the hospital and did not stay overnight. At this time there is a safety stand-down for the project until a more thorough assessment is completed.

Kansas firefighters burned over in engine

Author BillPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , ,

From Salina.com:

Two McPherson firefighters are recovering after being burned when their firefighting brush truck was swept over by a grass fire Saturday southwest of McPherson.

Lt. Randall Willems and firefighter Josh Brewer were treated at the burn unit of Via Christi St. Francis Regional Medical Center in Wichita.

Brewer was treated for burns to his hand and face, and smoke inhalation. He was released from the hospital Sunday. Willems was treated for burns to his hands, arms and face and was released Monday morning, McPherson Fire Chief Dennis Thrower said.

The McPherson department was one of six area departments responding Saturday to two separate fires occurring about 12:35 p.m. in southwest McPherson County. The larger fire covered about 700 acres, the smaller blaze spread across about 90 acres, Capt. Neal Schierling with McPherson County Rural Fire District No. 5, said Monday.

Officials think the fires may have been started in ditches from sparks from a pickup truck with a worn wheel bearing, Schierling said. The fires were about a mile apart and were close to the McPherson-Rice county line. They were under control by about 3:30 or 4 p.m., he said.

Stuck in the mud

Willems and Brewer’s fire unit became stuck in a mud hole that wasn’t visible because of tall grass, Thrower said.

The fire “advanced on them unexpectedly and overtook them so quickly,” Thrower said, that they had no chance to use the truck sprayer to keep the flames at bay.

“The vegetation is very dry right now, due to it just coming out of winter,” Thrower said.

Afterwards, the two men were able to walk to the road where there were other fire units there to assist. A helicopter flew Brewer to the medical center in Wichita, while Willems was taken there by ambulance. Both are expected to fully recover from their injuries, Thrower said.

Three Firefighters Injured in Texas

Author BillPosted on Categories WildfireTags ,

Three firefighters were injured in a vehicle accident in Texas, according to an AP story.

ROBERT LEE, Texas — Firefighters across West and Central Texas continued to battle wildfires Tuesday that burned at least 200,000 acres, injured several people and forced the temporary evacuation of the 1,500 residents of Robert Lee, an official with the Texas Forest Service said.

Fire officials were waiting for daylight Tuesday to assess the scope of one massive wildfire stretching across Sterling, Reagan and Irion counties in Central Texas that could be as large as 500,000 acres, said David Abernathy, an incident commander with the forest service. Airplanes will fly over the fire during daylight Tuesday to obtain more accurate mapping data, he said.

At one point the blaze moved so quickly — fueled by 50 mph winds — that flames were consuming an area the size of “a football field every minute,” Abernathy said.

Three firefighters were injured in Archer County when two fire trucks collided head on after one swerved around a car that pulled out into the road, Abernathy said. One of the firefighters was airlifted to an area hospital, an Archer County dispatcher said. He survived but his condition was unknown.