Posted on 06/21/2024 5:33:43 AM PDT by Red Badger
An Alpine-area fire prevention worker died in a wood-chipper accident Tuesday. The man got entangled in the wood chipper and it had to be disassembled to get him out, but the accident was not survivable.
An Alpine-area man died in a wood chipper accident Tuesday, the Alpine Volunteer Fire Department reports.
The fire department was called to the scene near Alpine, Wyoming, at 1:34 p.m. Tuesday on a report that a man had gotten entangled in a woodchipper, Alpine Fire Chief Mike Vogt told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.
One of about five firefighters on scene, Vogt pulled the man out of the device, he said.
A Star Valley Health Ambulance supervisor and five EMTs were on scene as well, said ambulance director Bud Clark.
Two Lincoln County Sheriff’s agents also responded.
The fire crew extricated the man by disassembling part of the wood chipper and lifting the cutting drum. The wood chipper appeared brand new, Vogt noted.
He said the man had been working as part of a contract program (not under Alpine Fire) to clear debris to prevent wildfires and died while still in the machine.
‘This Is Not A Normal Job’
Vogt said he did not know the victim personally.
Clark, however, said some of his EMTs did know the victim personally, and one had served with him in the military.
“That’s the problem with doing (emergency medical service) in a small community like ours,” said Clark. “We always end up running on people that we know.”
That can add to the trauma responders face, he said.
Clark hosted a critical incident stress debriefing that evening, where the first responders who attended were able to discuss the incident and shed tears. He said counseling and mental health are important components within the agency.
“This is not a normal job,” said Clark. “If you sent a bank teller to the scene we had up there, they’d be messed up for life.”
Not Survivable
Clark said the woodchipper incident was not survivable.
Vogt agreed, saying the injuries to the victim were too fatal to plague responders with thoughts of how they could have saved the man.
Though bleak, the thought helps fight back waves of guilt, said Vogt.
“There’s no way on this you could question: ‘We could have done this, or we could have done this to save him,’” he said. “There wouldn’t have been enough … time.”
Vogt said he was a fireman in Casper for 23 years before working in Alpine and has attended fatal scenes before. That has helped him handle the incident, though he’s concerned for the volunteers who work with him, he said.
Vogt said the incident also should be a learning opportunity and urges people to be careful around dangerous equipment and follow safety precautions. In a public statement dispatched earlier this week, he extended condolences to the victim’s family.
Professionalism
The job foreman who called 911, Oak VonSegderen, said though the incident is tragic, he was amazed at the speed and professionalism of both the fire and EMS responders.
VonSegderen was a career firefighter with about three decades of experience, including 27 years in Casper and five as Swan Valley fire chief.
“I’ve been and seen a lot of things, but I’ve never had to be on this end of it — and it’s very difficult,” said VonSegderen.
The fire and EMS response times to the hilly area off the highway were incredible for the crews of such a rural area, he said.
“The skill and the professionalism of the medics that showed up were as best as I’ve ever seen in my life,” VonSegderen added. “The volunteer firemen that showed up were so on it, everybody was on it (including) the dispatchers and — I don’t think, sometimes, if you don’t need us, rescuers, you don’t think about them.”
VonSegderen became emotional and asked his wife, Bridgett Ryan, to finish his interview.
Ryan said that her husband was alone in the hills when he called 911, but the dispatcher stayed on the line with him, which he needed.
She also credits Lincoln County sheriff’s personnel with helping on scene. And she said Clark connected VonSegderen this week with Sara Burnside, a therapist at Star Valley Health, which has been another blessing in the calamity.
Ryan had urged VonSegderen to speak to Cowboy State Daily so that even amid the tragedy, people may appreciate what emergency responders face for others.
“This is so tragic, it’s like there has to be something that comes out of it that’s somehow good,” said Ryan. “And right now that’s about all we can see.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
I spent most of the summer of 1985 in Alpine for geology field camp, staying at the 4-H camp about two miles north of town. Beautiful country. I wonder if Jeep’s Bar is still there.
Wood chippers scare the hell out of me.
Years ago, I occasionally worked a system designed to turn special documents into powder. It was the size of a truck trailer and required two people to operate. One person’s sole job was to hover their hand over the big red kill button whenever anyone was feeding paper into its maw. It was SOP when first powered up to feed it 2x4s to clean the grinding plates.
Maybe they could incorporate the similar stopping system that SawStop(the hot dog saw) invented for their table saws years ago.
Fully agree about wearing saw chaps. I spent a lot of time running chainsaws on Forest Service fire crews, and I knew several guys (and one woman) who had impressive zippers on their legs.
I wanted one until we got rid of all our trees on the lot.
Now I don’t need one................
I wanted one until we got rid of all our trees on the lot.
Now I don’t need one................
Absolutely right - people get tired, start seeing the end of the task instead of the one at hand...
I just put the downed limbs and trimmings onto a couple of brush piles for the quail to nest in. I didn’t see any tenants this last spring, though. Maybe again next year.
Sounds like really throwing yourself into your work
I used to camp in the winter woods of the 4 corners area to cut firewood, with a truck arriving every two weeks to collect the wood and take me to town for a shower, wash my one set of clothes and get more pinto beans, bacon, and instant coffee.
Once, I hit my leg just above the knee cap with the chainsaw which left a pretty ugly and very open wound, the only human I saw during that 10 day period after the injury and before the truck was a trapper who didn’t have any first aid, luckily it didn’t get infected and aside from an ugly scar it worked out.
Seeing what touching human flesh with a commercial chainsaw does is not a pretty thing to see.
Sawstops are great tools but even with using normal lumber they sometime activate falsely and that is a pretty expensive and time consuming replacement of parts. I think it would be much harder with varied material with different moisture contents to use the same or similar technology.
Holy carp!
I have never hurt my self with a power tool until this Memorial Day morning. I was ripping a 12” long piece of 4x4 on my Powermatic table saw. It kicked back and I touched the blade with my left middle finger. It just skimmed the end. Trimmed the nail, took off the skin and just a little flesh.
I was extremely glad when I looked down that 99% of my finger was still there. Then it started bleeding like crazy. I did not need stitches but it bled like crazy. Today is the first day I have not worn a band aid to work. Fortunately, I did not do much damage to the nerve endings there. Although, for the first couple weeks it was extremely sensitive.
I am LUCKY. I was been a woodworker since I was 14. Hence the tag name my dad gave me(woodbutcher).
“ Probably the most dangerous machine I have ever operated.”
I guess you have never seen a bale shredder.
When I was a teenager I got a summer job working in a paper factory. After I had worked there for several weeks, one of the older men explained how dangerous the machine was. Easily a hand could be caught in it and amputated immediately. I hadn’t thought of that. Nobody had explained it to me before then. I cringe as I think about it.
see post 32
I DO NOT own a SawStop table saw.
“When I cut a tree down now I switch to my small battery operated saw to limb the log. That way you only have a 12” bar exposed instead of an 18-20” or more bar spinning.”
I heard from a logger that kevlar chaps don’t work well with electric saws. But they’re no doubt better than nothing.
We can burn in NH in the winter as long as there is snow on the ground.
I typically have two brush piles on my property. One in the woods on the north side. Another on the edge of the woods on the south side.
I have 12 acres. So, I am cutting trees down every year. They break, die, blow down, etc. So, I cut the trees down/up and pile the branches on the closest brush pile. Burn it once there is at least a couple inches of snow on the ground.
Not sure what the difference between an electric battery powered motor spinning a chain or a 2 cycle engine spinning a chain.
It is the sharpened carbide teeth that cuts you. Not the engine.
You need a couple of goats.................
I was wondering the same thing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.