| At 1400 our crew was dispatched to the Stump incident on the lassen national forest. We arrived around 1500 and received our operational briefing. Terrain was very steep to the extent that multiple resources had to take shelter behind trees and boulders as rolling material fell down the hill. The rolling material had created a few spot fires beneath working crews. Fuel Type consisted of Brush, Timber and a light to moderate needle cast duff layer. The Fire was 40 acres at the time on a mid slope west facing aspect. There were 2 divisions, Alpha on the Left and Zulu on the Right. We were assigned to Div Alpha. 1 Hour into constructing handline the Chainsaw Operator ran out of fuel and needed to fill the chainsaw up. We were constructing straight fireline going direct and indirect in some places of the fire to choose favorable line cutting conditions. We got to the point where the fire started to progress laterally on the slope and crews had to construct under slung line. While fueling up 15 ft away from the the fire edge a burning log had a piece of charcoal that was on fire and rolled down the hill where the under slung line was going to be placed. the sawyer operator was behind a rock with his back to the fires edge looking up hill about 15 ft away in the green. While fueling the chainsaw the piece of charcoal that was on fire rolled over the large 5x5 ft round boulder and landed on the chainsaw operators chainsaw fuel tank. The tank cap was open and the coal caused the chainsaw to ignite. the chainsaw was not operable afterwards and the chainsaw operator was not injured. |
