By David Kihara
Las Vegas Review-Journal (Nevada)
Copyright 2006 DR Partners d/b/a Las Vegas Review-Journal
All Rights Reserved
Two firefighters were burned on 50 percent of their bodies and four others received minor injuries on Tuesday while battling a wildfire about 65 miles northwest of Winnemucca, fire officials said.
The two firefighters who suffered the worst burns, 32-year-old Jeff Gehlhausen and 27-year-old Jesse Shirley, both from out of state, were flown to University Medical Center for treatment early Wednesday.
Gehlhausen had first- and second-degree burns over his arms, legs and face while Shirley had second-degree burns mostly on his arms and legs, said Judie Tartaglia, deputy forest supervisor for Lake Tahoe National Forest who was helping with the fire.
They were both listed in fair condition on Wednesday night, UMC reported.
The other firefighters were treated for minor burns at the Humbolt General Hospital in Winnemucca and released.
Federal officials arrived in Nevada on Wednesday to investigate the incident and are expected to spend the next few days interviewing people involved in the fire, said Jamie Thompson, spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management’s Winnemucca Field Office.
The firefighters injured were part of a 20-member firefighting team out of Eldorado National Forest in Placerville, Calif. They were battling the New York Peak fire a wildfire outside of Winnemucca that had burned at least 3,000 acres as of Wednesday night, BLM officials said.
The firefighters were in a creek about 5 p.m. and had just completed burning some land to use up fuel and prevent further fires when another fire broke out, the BLM said.
A whirlwind kicked up and collected smoldering embers from the firefighters’ burn operation and flung it into unburned vegetation, igniting it, the BLM reported.
The firefighters were then caught up in the middle of it, Thompson said.
“There was no time to react - it was a matter of seconds,” he said.
The firefighters didn’t have enough time to open and crawl inside their protective tents, he said.
Frank Mosbacher, spokesman for the Eldorado National Forest, said he too had been told the fire overtook the firefighters before they could react. “Whatever happened out there, it happened quick,” he said.
The six firefighters were taken first to the hospital in Winnemucca at around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night, but the authorities determined that Gehlhausen and Shirley’s injuries were serious enough to require treatment at UMC’s burn unit, Thompson said.
The BLM said that a federal interagency investigation team, under the authority of the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, is looking into the incident.
There are about 100 firefighters who are still fighting the New York Peak fire, but the 20-member team from Eldorado was taken off the fire pending the investigation.
The fire is expected to be contained today.