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When I see Yellowjackets swarming out of a nest in the ground, a 1/2 gal of Naphtha poured into their underground nest will suffocate them. Yellowjacket bites are extremely painful. When Yellowjackets inflict pain on me, I inflict pain on them.
They like saw has too hehe
 
And sad news also:
https://calcoastnews.com/2016/09/ventura-county-firefighter-killed-crash-en-route-vandenberg/
f60ff07d17fc386bd53ca12f9ca9344f.jpg
 
Finally able to see the site the water tender went over the edge on the Soberanes Fire. Zoom way in it's the white pile in middle of pic. Worked with the Guys that facilitated the rescue and extraction of the driver
c253da5a79d020e0e0a7c73c5b0309b4.jpg

Great job by all who were involved, the REM (Rapid Extraction Mod) team also was the one that secured the almost roll-over of a teetering tender, featured in a video in an earlier post.

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Hey Drip. I have not learned where the tenders rolled over. Do you have a better location. I was surprised a REM was used on the near miss. I didn't know they did that kind of work. (I had read about their use in Wildfiretoday.com).

Where is the drainage you pictured? I was in the Little Sur drainage today begging for another explosives crew to help me out. Maybe, maybe not.
 
Hey Drip. I have not learned where the tenders rolled over. Do you have a better location. I was surprised a REM was used on the near miss. I didn't know they did that kind of work. (I had read about their use in Wildfiretoday.com).

Where is the drainage you pictured? I was in the Little Sur drainage today begging for another explosives crew to help me out. Maybe, maybe not.

PM sent
REM anchored it until Dozer pulled with chains
 
Today, straight down this ridge line to a Bee swarm attack on Saw mod working in the drainage .
1500' loss in a mile, which means 1500' climb out

SUUUUUCKS no thanks man

I was in the Little Sur drainage today begging for another explosives crew to help me out. Maybe, maybe not.

Seriously gonna investigate in the off-season how to do that with EOD assistance. Surely those guys have the goods and the know-how, and can use the training opportunity.
 
Good point that I've always wondered about--how does the faller hear the spotter? Maybe crews should carry one of those little noisy airhorns made for boating? Even then, can the faller react fast enough?
 
A few years ago "Sim Limbs" were a popular training aid. A Sim Limb is a piece of very light weight plastic conduit covered in pipe insulation. It could be dropped from 20' up and if it hit you it would not hurt. I don't know if these devices are used any longer. Some could be triggered to drop from the ground. What I found out is that the sim limb hit the ground every time in less than 2 seconds. If the faller was not looking up he was hit. The swamper should be looking up too but there is really nothing he can do to help. It is never a good idea to body tackle a guy running a chainsaw.

I you are going to practice with a sim limb TAKE THE CHAIN OFF THE SAW! Wear your full PPE including ears and try acting the way you would when falling a tree including having the saw running.

Regarding this incident I don't know what I would have done differently. Darn shame someone got hurt over a dead tree.

Do we know who the faller is?
 
I spent yesterday falling fire damaged tanoaks inside the Soberanes fire lines near Big Sur. Over the years I have gotten used to these trees' nasty habits, mainly breaking the hinge very early. Heavy leaners in the three foot range will easily break when the hinge is 8" thick and sometimes 10 or more inches thick. After this fire many trees have a burned out heart that goes up the tree 10 or 12 feet or more. I'm sawing a face into the tree above my head. This really takes some strength...which I don't have so my face is often angled or too shallow and now requires trimming.

Yesterday my second tree was probably 5' diameter at ground level and a little over 3' at the cut. The MS460/32" LW Stihl bar was sharp and in perfect tune. (OK maybe it was a little grabby). This tree forked about 30' up and the left fork forked again for 40'. The top was another 20', maybe. That left fork was aimed dead on into a fir tree with enough downhill lean I was not going to steer it anywhere else but that was OK because I figured with more weight on the right side it would just pivot and rotate around the fir. FALLING! The tanoak hit the fir like I thought it would and bent it over BUT it tore the left upper fork off and threw it back toward me! It landed 30' from me but it gave a scare none the less.

When I looked at the stump I could see onside corner where the face had closed and the offside where the hinge was a little thick. No big deal, I'm still alive.

If you guys are falling tanoaks of any size be careful. There middle half of these trees are weak and punky. Sometimes termites will have weakened the tree, especially with co-dominant trunks. Watch the sawdust if possible or have your swamper keep an eye on it. And as always LOOK UP.
 
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