Three firefighters injured in two rollover crashes
Three firefighters injured in two rollover crashes
19 July 2014
published by www.ktvz.com
USA — The dangers of firefighting arent solely on the fire lines, a reminder seen Friday in a pair of injury rollover crashes miles apart involving trucks en route to two of the many wildfires burning in Central Oregon, putting one in the hospital.
A fire engine with two people crashed around 2 p.m. Friday while on initial attack response to the 73 Fire, Warm Springs Agency officials said Saturday.
One occupant of the Type 4, Model 52 tribal wildland fire engine was taken by ambulance, then flown to an unidentified hospital with injuries, the severity of which also was not detailed.
The other occupant was taken to the Warm Springs Clinic for evaluation and released, officials said.
Out of respect for the families, no additional information is available at this time, the news release stated.
On Friday morning, a water tender rolled onto its side en route to the east side of the Bailey Butte Fire, one of four burning near Mitchell as part of the Waterman Complex, officials said.
The driver was assessed on scene by medical personnel and transported to a local hospital for further evaluation, officials said late Friday. Again, no more details were released.
Last August, firefighter Jesse Trader, 19, of Albany, was killed in a crash while driving a water tender back from a night shift fighting wildfires in a hard-to-reach area near Grants Pass.
Around 7:20 a.m. that morning, the truck hit an embankment and overturned. He was working for a family member’s private firefighting company helping fight the Big Windy Complex of fires.
Trader was the second Oregon firefighter to die in the line of duty that week. Tree faller John Hammack of Sisters was killed and Norman Crawford of the Redmond area was injured when they were struck by a falling dead tree, known as a snag, clearing an area near Dugout Lake in the Deschutes National Forest.
