Tammany Fire Hit by Tree Fatality 1910

 On August 2, 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 near Tammany, Montana. This accident occurred 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 this fire near the Polleys Lumber Company lands, located near the Idaho/Montana border. While hiking off the fire in a line, a tree suddenly fell into the group. Polleys reportedly pushed the man next to him out of the way of the falling tree and warned the other men. While doing so, the tree struck Polley's head, fracturing his skull. This 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. Ten minutes later, at the Saltese train stop, a doctor boarded the train. While Polleys was still enroute on the train to Missoula, he was pronounced dead at 1340.

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