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SAFENET

Wildland Fire Safety & Health Reporting Network

SAFENET Event Information
Create Agency Response

SAFENET ID:
20240828-0001
Event Start Date:
08/21/2024 1950
Event Stop Date:
 
Incident Name:
Barnes Canyon
Fire Number:
SDBKF-241001 
State:
South Dakota
Jurisdiction:
State
Local Unit:
Custer State Park
Incident Type:
Wildland
Incident Activity:
Line
Stage of Incident:
Initial Attack
Position Title:
Engine Captain  
Task:
Line construction  
Management Level:
4
Resources Involved:
Crew, dozer  
Contributing Factors
Contributing Factors:
Equipment, Human Factors, Other
Human Factors:
Decision Making, Situational Awareness  
Other Factors:
attitude 
Narrative
Describe in detail what happened including the concern or potential issue, the environment (weather, terrain, fire behavior, etc), and the resulting health issue.
During initial attack stages of the Barnes Canyon fire, while putting in saw line and hot spotting a near miss took place with a south dakota state dozer and a crew.
Indirect Dozer line had already been put in place while direct saw line and a hose lay were been put in place. The dozer had made several passes on the dozer line going in both directions.
While myself and the other crew members were placing in saw line the dozer passed us along the dozer line traveling faster than usual. We were approximately 30 feet off the dozer line when the dozer blade struck the base of a snag causing it to fall toward myself and the crew. I heard the strike, turned around to see the snag falling towards me and another crew member from the state. We both ran away in opposite directions avoiding the tree from hitting us.
The state crew member called the dozer operator on the radio telling him what had happened. The dozer operator called back stating " nothing I can do, its tight in here". This gave us the impression that the operator was not paying attention and traveling to fast as he had already made several passes in the same dozer line.
Once I tied in with the IC I made it clear that the dozer operator had been traveling too fast on the dozer line and didnt realize how close we were to being hit my the snag. His attitude reflected that he didnt take it as a big deal.
Immediate Action Taken
Reporting Individual : please describe actions you took to correct or mitigate the unsafe/unhealthful event.
During our initial breifing we discussed the potential for snags falling and dozer operations.

I made contact with the division leader and the IC and IC trainee about what had happened. I informed them that I would be filing a safenet to report the incident.
After this we took a 5 minute break and discussed dozer safety again, and the potential for another incident to take place due to the operators attitude.


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