Taylor Creek Fire Chainsaw Cut 2018

The crew was constructing handline in the bottom of Taylor Creek. It was approximately 1400 when the lead sawyer and swamper came to a patch of poison oak in 2-5-inch dbh pine trees. Poison oak vines were wrapped around most of these trees. The sawyer cut a three-inch tree. The poison oak vine grabbed the chain and pulled the cut tree down into the chainsaw bar, pushing the bar into the sawyer’s leg about four inches below the left knee. The saw’s teeth grabbed the sawyer’s saw chaps and rolled them from the outside inward—exposing the sawyer’s unprotected leg. The chain bit into his leg below the knee, causing a laceration. The medical unit referred the injured sawyer to the local hospital. The cut took six stitches to close. The sawyer was back to work the next day.

Hand Crews, Extended Attack, RLS, Chainsaw Cut