Caltrans Equipment Operator II

Department of Transportation

8/9/2007

Special Service Award (Silver)

At approximately 12:00 p.m., on August 9, 2007, the Pine Grove Maintenance crew was working on westbound Highway 88 at Buckhorn Ridge Road near Ione when a Mule Creek State Prison inmate bus, towing a trailer, passed their location. As the bus drove down the hill, a wheel came off the trailer, causing sparks to ignite the grass next to the roadway. A grassfire quickly ensued burning through the meadow and into the trees. Seeing the blaze, Lead Worker Dave McDaniel sent Michael Blake in his grader to the west flank of the fire where he proceeded to cut a fire line from the highway up into the trees. Meanwhile Leonard Marsh, Kyle Gaspard and John Kearns, using a narrow private drive, drove their large water tanker in from the east. With Kyle Gaspard manning the water hose, they kept the east flank of the fire from reaching two homes located within the path of the fire. Even after the arrival of the Cal Fire units, these employees continued to support the fire trucks with water until the fire was contained. Dave McDaniel and Scot McKinney set up traffic control and managed to keep the road open to traffic, while directing emergency vehicles to the fire. Cal Fire dispatched 6 engines, 2 hand crews, 1 dozer and 2 helicopters to handle this fire. The immediate actions taken by the maintenance crew prevented the fire from reaching catastrophic levels and saved at least two homes from possible destruction. Cal Fire commended the crew for their quick response.