Compartment 68 Prescribed Fire Heavy Equipment Incident 2022

On the morning of February 5, 2022, the Oakmulgee Ranger District, National Forests in Alabama, was preparing multiple compartments for prescribed fire by using several dozers at different compartments. During the morning operational briefing, two firefighters were assigned to work Compartment 68 on a John Deere 450J. After about two and half hours of line prep, they had made significant process, until the dozer became stuck in some soft dirt. During an attempt to winch the dozer out, the dozer swamper was attempting to free the winch cable which would not freespool. The winch became activated and crushed the swamper's middle and index fingers.

Heavy Equipment, Prescribed Fire, RLS