Duty Death: Diane Jones - [Summerville]
End of Service: 31/08/2020
By Laura French
Update Sept. 4, 2020: Authorities have confirmed that Firefighter Diane Jones was killed in a vehicle crash while fighting the wildfires at Mendocino National Forest.
Jones was repositioning an engine when it backed over an embankment and into a fire, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. Two other firefighters were in the engine at the time, one of whom was also injured in the crash.
Jones was working for the private company KL Farms/Fire LLC, based in Summerville, Oregon, to battle fires during the wildfire season, the USFA reported. She was a volunteer firefighter at the Cresson Volunteer Fire Department; her son, Capt. Ian Shelly, who is also a member of the Cresson department, was also battling wildfires at Mendocino National Forest at the time of Jones’ death.
Original report:
CRESSON, Texas — A Texas firefighter-EMT was killed battling a wildfire in northern California on Monday.
Cresson Firefighter-EMT Diane Jones died while battling the August Complex at Mendocino National Forest, according to FOX4. She had been a member of the Cresson Volunteer Fire Department in Texas for nearly five years.
Cresson Fire Chief Ron Becker told FOX4, “She was a good firefighter. She was a good EMT and she was just a good person.”
Jones’ son was also a member of the Cresson department and both responded to wildfires each summer through a company that contracts with the federal government.
The U.S. Forest Service confirmed that one firefighter was killed and another was injured battling the August Complex at Mendocino National Forest on Monday. Further details have not yet been released.
“Our department is numbed by the news and we are hurting,” the Cresson Volunteer Fire Department wrote in a Facebook post Monday.
The August Complex has burned nearly 243,000 acres and consists of 37 different fires, some of which have merged, that started on Aug. 17, according to U.S. Forest Service officials. About 690 personnel are battling the fire, which was 20% contained as of Tuesday morning.