Noonan Fire Power Line Incident 2023

On July 26th, 2023, a wildfire was ignited in Campbell County, Wyoming, and was reported to be by the intersections of Williams Road and Story Ave. The estimated time was around 1840. FS engine personnel were off shift at the station when the dispatch came in. A FS type 4 engine with 2 people was soon en route to the new start with an ETA of about 5 minutes. 

The initial attack plan was to extinguish the more active part of the fire, starting from the west side, heading east on the true south flank securing the line back to the road. Engine damage from contact with the power lines. When starting to anchor in again, out of the corner of the operators’ eye they saw an electrical arc flash out of the bottom of the truck and heard a loud pop. Visibility was impeded due to the smoke, which kept the engine crew from seeing some low-hanging power lines. After the arc was noticed and a loud pop was heard, the engine crew drove forward clearing the scene from wires, while doing so they heard a power line scraping the top of the engine. They continued to drive forward to clear the power lines.

RLS