Chips Fire Felling Injury 2012

On August 20 2012 at approximately 0945 hours, a limb fell from snag on the Plumas National Forest struck and injured a wildland firefighter faller. The faller’s mission was to remove snags from a section of line on Division G of the Chips fire. The faller was in the process of falling a 61 inch diameter at breast height (DBH), 163 foot tall Ponderosa Pine “buckskin” tree when a limb approximately 5 inches in diameter and 5 feet in length fell approximately 63 feet and struck the back of the hardhat being worn by the faller. The faller had completed the undercut. He walked around the tree to retrieve his falling axe and began using it to remove a small portion of the wedge section still left in the undercut. He struck this small section four times and on the fifth strike a limb fell vertically striking the faller’s hard hat. Emergency medical services were dispatched immediately. The faller lost consciousness for approximately 2-3 minutes. Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) at scene rendered care immediately removing the faller from the area and administered first aid. The faller regained consciousness and complained of head, jaw and hip pains. The medical evacuation of the patient took approximately 34 minutes from the time of the initial report until the patient was in Helicopter 407 and in route to the Enloe Medical Center in Chico CA. The faller received 18 staples in the back of his head and was released the same day.