Date of incident: July 2023
Notice of incident number: 2023158820013
Employer: Wildland firefighting service

Incident summary
A wildland firefighting crew was performing fire suppression duties in a remote location when a spruce tree fell without warning and struck one of the firefighters. The firefighter sustained injuries.

Investigation conclusions

Cause

• Worker struck by falling tree with damaged roots. Firefighters were conducting mop-up activities, which involves scraping away organic materials around a tree to remove fuel for the fire and hosing the area with water to extinguish hot spots and underground burning. The spruce tree likely fell because of damage to the anchoring soil from the mop-up activities, the tree’s fire-damaged roots, and wind.

Contributing factors

• Inadequate inspections. The employer did not ensure that the required documentation for dangerous tree assessments (DTAs) was being completed. Because the required documentation was not being collected or reviewed, there were no means to verify that the DTAs were being done or being done correctly. Thus, the employer was not adequately inspecting its work methods and practices to ensure that the use of DTAs was an effective control and prevented the development of unsafe conditions.
• Incomplete dangerous tree assessment. There was no documentation to support that a DTA had been completed at the site prior to the incident. Documentation of DTAs is required by both the employer’s DTA training program and its safe work procedures but was not being completed by workers or collected by the employer.
• Safe work procedures not followed. The employer’s safe work procedures for dangerous tree assessments describe the steps that a DTA should follow and what documentation must be completed. No documentation was being completed for DTAs, and without any documentation, it cannot be verified whether the rest of the steps outlined in the safe work procedures for DTAs were being followed.
• Inadequate supervision. Although its policies state that DTAs require documentation, the employer was not ensuring that DTAs were being completed nor that the required documentation was being submitted and reviewed. The employer did not provide adequate instruction or supervision to supervisors or other workers on initial attack crews to ensure the health and safety of its workers.

Request the full report