Four Firefighters Die in Idaho as National Guard Truck Flips

A National Guard personnel carrier taking firefighters back to a forest fire base camp swerved off a dirt road and rolled into a creek bed Sunday, killing four and injuring 17.

The accident, near the 18,000-acre Anderson fire, occurred in the early morning after the firefighters’ overnight shift, Anderson Fire Incident Commander Doc Smith said.

Two firefighters suffered severe injuries, seven were moderately injured with fractures and eight others suffered minor injuries, Smith said.

The injured were taken by helicopter and ambulance to two hospitals in Boise, 40 miles to the south.

Lands in Dry Creek Bed

The five-ton dump truck left the road and overturned before ending up in a dry creek bottom 50 feet below the dirt highway, Smith said.

The accident occurred in Danskin Canyon, about eight miles east of the base camp for the 1,764 firefighters and support personnel battling the Anderson blaze.

The firefighters, who were from New Mexico, were among 62 crews trying to contain the Anderson fire, which erupted during an Aug. 10 lightning storm that also started hundreds of other blazes across the Northwest.

The Anderson fire effort is costing the government an estimated $387,000 per day, for a total of $2.8 million so far.

Eighteen men and a woman were riding in the bed of the truck, the last of a three-truck convoy down a steep, one-way road, when the left rear wheel hit a two-foot-high ledge on the side of the road. The driver, one of two Idaho National Guardsmen riding in the cab, lost control, Smith said.

Three Killed Instantly

As the truck rolled over, all of the occupants were ejected from the bed of the truck. Three men died instantly and a fourth died before help could arrive, he said.

The Forest Service was sending in a special investigative team to check into the accident, Smith said.

“We’re not pointing the finger at anybody, we just want to try to prevent it from happening again,” Smith said. “We don’t know whether or not the driver’s vision was impaired by the dust and I have no idea how fast he was going.”

A memorial service was held for the dead firefighters at the base camp Sunday night.

The Anderson blaze was expected to be contained by today. Helicopters flying through dense smoke ferried firefighters into a rugged mountainside, where they were gouging a fire line by hand along a final 2 1/2-mile section that would enclose the fire.

“We’re making a fairly major effort today to control the fire,” Smith said. “We think we can get it done.”