Incident Name: Pryor Fire 3 mi east of Oakridge on the Willamette National Forest
Date: 8/31/1992
Personnel: James Shannon Campbell of Springfield
Age: 29
Agency/Organization: Outer Limb, Inc of Eugene under contract with Oregon Department of Forestry
Position: firefighter
Summary: On 8/31/1992, firefighter Shannon Campbell was struck by a falling tree while fighting fire in steep, rocky terrain on the southern flank of the 760-acre Pryor Fire on the Willamette National Forest. “The tree that killed Campbell instantly was a small one, no more than 6″ in diameter. It stood on the fire’s south flank about 10′ from the fireline where Campbell’s crew had been working. The main front of the fire had passed through hours earlier.” (Mike Theole, Eugene Register Guard, Sep 2, 1994)
Maps
Pryor Fire was 3 mi east of Oakridge on the Willamette National Forest.
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Oregon Death Certificate places his death at Lane OR.
{mosmap lat=’43.961009’|lon=’-122.661823’|marker=’0’|text=’Lane, OR’}
Reports, Documentation, Lessons Learned
- Lessons Learned Center Incident Entry: Pryor Incident (link no longer works)
- James Shannon’s name and death date are included in the USFA Firefighter Fatality Retrospective Study, published April 2002 (2,888 K pdf)
- Mike Theole’s article: On the Fire Line, Death Hovers Overhead (to read the end on page A4, pulll the paper to the left 4 pages)
- Oregon Fallen Firefighters’ Memorial: James Shannon Campbell (pdf download) | DPSST list
- Oregon Death Index: James Shannon Campbell
- USFA Memorial Database: James Shannon Campbell
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Wildlandfire.com Links:
Media Articles and Reports
- Firefighter Killed In Oregon Blaze Recalled As Lover Of People, Nature
9/7/92 | online seattletimes AP
WALTERVILLE, Ore. – A 29-year-old firefighter killed battling a forest fire was remembered in a memorial service this weekend as a person who cared intensely about people and about nature. James Campbell of Leaburg, Ore, was killed last Monday, when a standing dead tree fell on him while he was fighting the Pryor Fire, three miles east of Oakridge.
His mother, Lynn Campbell, said her son always worked in the forest, planting trees, fighting fires, gathering ornamental plants and fir boughs and supervising a yew bark-collection crew. “That was his life – he was so smart, but he never wanted anything but to work in the woods,” she said… More at the link.
- Article naming Shannon Campbell
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