Tammany Fire Hit by Tree Fatality 1910

William Polleys, a 27-year-old lumberman in Western Montana, was killed by a falling tree while hiking off a forest fire with his crew on August 2, 1910, near Tammany, Montana. This accident occurred over two weeks before the famous "Big Burn" of the Northern Rockies. Polleys was a crew leader of a group of firefighters who had performed initial attack on a fire near the lands of the Polleys Lumber Company near the Idaho/Montana border. While hiking off the fire in a line, a tree fell into the group. Polleys reportedly pushed the man next to him out of the way of the tree and warned the other men, and was subsequently struck on the head, fracturing his skull. The accident occurred at 1130. Polleys was carried to the train station at Tammany, where the train to Missoula was due. Polleys was loaded onto the train, and a doctor was taken onboard at Saltese ten minutes later. While Polleys was still enroute to Missoula he was pronounced dead at 1340.

Hit by Tree, Fatality, Hand Crews, Initial Attack, Medevac