![]() ![]() Operators use the blades attached to their bulldozers to create a hefty, dirt path - removing flammable brush, grass and trees directly alongside a burning fire, that, in theory, will stop the fire from spreading. A bulldozer was even used to clear abandoned cars out of the way of a Butte County area hospital in Paradise, Calif., to help rescuers evacuate patients Thursday. Now, dozens bulldozer operators are being deployed to help fight three aggressive, fast-moving infernos that scorched tens of thousands of acres across the state this week and killed at least five people. Among the thousands of firefighters across the state, there are less than 200 bulldozer operators who use their vehicles to create containment lines on the state’s biggest and fastest-moving fires. The deaths - and near-deaths - of these bulldozer operators expose the heightened dangers they face when operating tens of thousands of pounds of equipment near a burning fire - especially as more intense fire seasons make their jobs more precarious and unpredictable. But now we still have to do our business.” “It’s like we’re soldiers, and these are our war buddies getting shot. “I hate to say we’re getting used to going to funerals, but I’ve been to quite a few,” says Scott Price, a dozer operator with the Ventura County Fire Department in Southern California. (The two of them completed the bulldozer training academy together.) “It was hard to look back and realize how easily that could’ve been me,” says Carter. The area was so remote, officials said, it took three days to remove his body from the site.Ĭarter, who survived a similar altercation eight months earlier, felt like he had the wind knocked out of him when he heard of Varney’s death. Varney was working to contain the massive Ferguson fire burning in a remote area near Yosemite National Park when his 42,320-pound bulldozer slipped three times before tumbling down a 220-foot slope, killing Varney, according to Cal Fire’s report. Braden Varney, a 36-year-old heavy equipment operator, and Don Ray Smith, an 81-year-old private contract operator, both died in July while working to contain two different fires.
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