Entiat Fire Hit by Tree Fatality 1970

Willie Shaw was an itinerant laborer who was recruited off the streets of Portland, Oregon to help staff the Entiat Fire on the Wenatchee National Forest. After first working in the kitchen unit, he volunteered to join a mop-up crew. On August 28, 1970, he was struck by a tree and died instantly of head and chest injuries while helping with a mop-up operation--after working just one day on the fireline. According to the U.S. Forest Service investigator, the tree that caused the accident was located approximately 40 feet inside the fireline and was burning at the base. Action had been taken to have it cut, but it fell before the fallers arrived.

Hand Crews, Mop Up, Medical Emergency, Fatality