By Geoff Liesik
The Deseret Morning News
WHITEROCKS, Utah — An unexpected wind gust during a parachute jump into a wildfire has injured two members of an elite, eight-person smoke-jumper team.
Don Smurthwaite, a spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, said one of the men suffered a hairline fracture of the pelvis during a hard landing Wednesday night.
The firefighter was evacuated by medical helicopter to a hospital in Grand Junction, Colo.
The second firefighter was treated for “bumps and bruises” at an area hospital and released, Smurthwaite said, putting the injuries in the “rare category.”
“There is some inherent danger in being a smoke jumper, but our smoke jumpers are extraordinarily safety conscious, and their overall safety record is very good,” he said, attributing the mishap to a sudden shift in wind near the ground as the team was landing.
Both men are members of a Boise-based smoke-jumper team called in to battle the Little Water Fire, which had burned about 15 acres as of Thursday morning.
The fire is burning on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation northeast of Whiterocks in rugged terrain, according to Bureau of Indian Affairs Supervisory Forester Douglas Bryce.
Copyright 2009 The Deseret News Publishing Co.