Incident Name: brush fire in Lakeside CA
Date: incident date: 7/5/17; fatality date: 7/11/17
Personnel: Frank Anaya
Age: 22
Agency/Organization: CALFIRE, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
Position: wildland firefighter
Summary: On Wednesday, July 5, 2017, at 1400 hours, a CAL FIRE inmate firefighter crew responded to a wildland fire in the Lakeside Fire Protection District of San DiegoCounty, California. While constructing direct handline, firefighter Frank Anaya suffered a serious laceration from a chainsaw to the right upper leg. Frank Anaya was transported to a local area hospital in critical condition and succumbed to the injury on July 11, 2017.
Photo credit: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
Photo credit: CDC
Maps
Vicinity of Interstate 8-Business and Los Coches Road (U.S. National Grid: 11S NS 0884 3270)
Reports, Documentation, Lessons Learned
- CAL FIRE Green Sheet (72 hr report):July 5, 2017
Interstate 8
17-CA-MVU-016308
17-CA-MVU-016337
California Southern RegionOn Wednesday, July 5, 2017, at 1400 hours, a CAL FIRE inmate firefighter crew responded to a wildland fire in the Lakeside Fire Protection District of San Diego County, California. While constructing direct handline, an inmate firefighter suffered a serious laceration from a chainsaw to the right upper leg. The inmate firefighter was transported to a local area hospital in critical condition and succumbed to the injury on July 11, 2017.
Wildlandfire.com Links:
Media Articles and Reports
- Report details dramatic moments before inmate firefighter suffered fatal injuries7/17/17 | Online Article (KQED)
State workplace regulators said Monday they have launched an investigation into the death of an inmate firefighter in San Diego County this month, the second fatality involving a prison firefighter in California this year.
In fact, the only state firefighters to be killed in the line of duty this year were prisoners, Cal Fire officials said. Frank Anaya died last Tuesday after he fell onto an active chainsaw being operated on a steep hill in Lakeside a week earlier. The incident took place in the early afternoon of July 5, moments after a wildfire was reported near Interstate 8.
Anaya’s team was called to the scene… (more at the link, with photo of accident scene)
- CA Inmate FF Fatally Injured by Partner’s Chainsaw7/15/2017 | Online Article (San Diego Union Tribune)
A report by Cal Fire says inmate firefighter Frank Anaya, who died Tuesday (7/11/17), was fatally injured by a chainsaw another inmate was using during efforts to contain a brush fire in Lakeside on July 5.
July 14–An inmate firefighter who died Tuesday was severely cut with a chainsaw another inmate was using while they were working together to stop a blaze in Lakeside, according to a Cal Fire report.
Frank Anaya, 22, was tasked with clearing brush cut by another inmate firefighter to build a fire containment line around a mobile home park off Interstate 8-Business and Los Coches Road.
The July 5 fire would be extinguished before any homes were damaged. It charred 2 acres.
According to the report of the fatal incident, Anaya was standing on a rock and pushing against a shrub his partner was cutting with a 24-inch chainsaw when a branch snapped and Anaya lost his balance.
He fell and landed on the chainsaw, which cut the back of his upper right thigh.
According to the report, he yelled: “Oww, I’ve been hit.”
His partner, who felt the power tool snag Anaya’s Kevlar chaps, applied the chain break and withdrew the chainsaw, the report said.
Paramedics and other firefighters applied a tourniquet to Anaya’s leg to control the bleeding before he was rushed away in an ambulance. He died Tuesday at a hospital after undergoing multiple surgeries.
Anaya had been assigned to the La Cima Conservation Camp in Julian since April.
A former Venura County resident, he had been in state custody since last September after being convicted of assault on his spouse and a weapons charges.
Photos, Videos, & Tributes
- USFA Memorial Database: Frank Anaya
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