Two members of the Bureau of Land Management's elite Silver State Hotshots were struck by a falling tree snag at approximately 7:30 a.m. this morning while working on the Trapper Ridge wildland fire use incident, located on the Boise National Forest, 28 miles northeast of Idaho City, Idaho. The Silver State Hotshots, based at the BLM-Carson City Field Office, were one of five hand crews assigned to the 10,884 acre Trapper Ridge incident; they were working their third day on the incident when the accident occurred.
The two injured firefighters, Mike Handley, 22, of Henderson and Nathan Wendell, 24, of Reno, were transported by LifeFlight to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise. Both firefighters were treated for head and shoulder injuries and have been released from the hospital.
The U.S. Forest Service has offered a critical incident stress debriefing to the crew and will conduct a safety review of the incident.
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