Two Good Ones

Well, I was pumped up after having spent all night on the Cochiti Fire. Bagged some sleep, came into the office, and got hit by this...
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I regret to inform you that earlier today, two Indianola rapellers were
overrun on the Cramer Fire and died during the fire blowup. Jeff Allen and
Shane Heath were working a helispot in rough terrain above the Salmon River
Canyon when the fire blew up. Both were veteran firefighters at Indianola;
Jeff started at Indy in 2000 and Shane in 2002 after a season at Sula in
2001. Families in Salmon and Boise have been notified; the bodies were not
retrieved tonight due to loss of flight time. An investigation is underway
regarding the sequence of events leading to their deaths. The Sheriff and
Coroner are invovled, as is the national serious accident investigation
team, as well as a critical incident stress team.


Everyone else on the incident is safe and off the incident. The Cramer Fire
is being transitioned to a type I Incident Management Team. Information
about the fires will be forthcoming.


Please remember Jeff, Shane, their family, and friends and those involved
with the Cramer Fire and North Fork RD in your prayers. Information on
services and memorials, as well as counseling is forthcoming. There will
be a stand down at all fires tomorrow for three hours from 7 AM to 10 AM.
If anyone feels that safety of themselves or others is affected because of
this news, please talk to your supervisor or line officer at the stand
down.
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One of our local rapellers was scheduled to start a detail with this crew last week, but got involved with a week-long fire the day before he was to leave, so he was going to head up there this coming Monday. Additionally, some of our folks had trained with the crew over the years, so it's a subdued day here even though we're chasing a bunch of lightning starts.

This sucks.

 

Appreciate the thoughts fellas.