Bulldozer’s Driver Killed by Forest Fire

A volunteer bulldozer driver killed as he fled a sudden flare-up in a 5,000-acre forest fire had chosen a different escape route than other drivers, fire officials said Friday.

Sydney Bruce Maplesden Jr., 25, died Thursday night fighting the fire about two miles from Sams Valley, where more than 100 homes had been evacuated.

Wildly swirling winds kicked up in the early evening, breathing new life into the blaze and sending it racing through the rugged canyons where the firefighters were trying to dig lines to contain the blaze.

As the fire surged--covering a quarter of a mile in less than three minutes--the firefighters, and several bulldozers, fled.

A supervisor had ordered a group of bulldozer drivers out, but Maplesden split off from the pack and headed in a different direction, said fire commander Mike Templeton.

Maplesden, 25, apparently tried to run. His burned body was found on the ground near the back of the bulldozer, said Deputy Medical Examiner Spencer Smith.

It is believed that the fire was set, and if so, the arsonist could face felony murder charges for Maplesden’s death, Jackson County Sheriff C.W. Smith said.

In five western states, more than 22,176 firefighters were battling 28 major fires Friday that have already burned 365,780 acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

In California, a 2,600-acre forest fire danced back and forth in erratic winds near the Sierra Nevada town of Big Creek, about 50 miles east of Fresno. The shifting winds moved it closer, then veered off to push it toward a wilderness area that firefighters will have trouble reaching by foot.

Authorities predicted total containment by Sunday night. About 400 residents and nearby campers had been evacuated.