Big Bend Fire Dozer Rollover Fatality 1966

A dozer rolled over while constructing indirect line above a 600 acre fire in the North Fork Feather River canyon in the Big Bend area, killing the operator. The dozer operator, Ernest Leitner perished when his dozer struck or slipped on a rock and rolled 300 feet down the steep slope. The fire was under the management of California Department of Forestry (now CAL FIRE) who decided to pull all other heavy equipment off the fire and employ hand crews to complete lines. Leitner was at the top of the slope, using his dozer as an anchor for another dozer working further down the slope. A portion of the area that burned in the Big Bend Fire was later inundated when Lake Oroville filled in 1969.