# North Alabama fatality



## Elmore (Feb 27, 2005)

Sunday, February 27, 2005
Huntsville Times 
City firefighter killed when tree falls on him 

An off-duty Huntsville city firefighter was killed when a tree fell on him Friday in Jackson County, a city fire official says. 

Roy Manley Sr., 63, was cutting a tree when another tree fell and struck him in the back of the head, said Jay Gates, spokesman for Huntsville Fire & Rescue. 

Manley, a driver-engineer at Station 4 on Monte Sano, had 38 years of service with the department, Gates said.


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## ray benson (Feb 27, 2005)

Wow, I would like to read the details on it. Firemen are very safety orientated.


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## dayman (Feb 27, 2005)

ray benson said:


> Wow, I would like to read the details on it. Firemen are very safety orientated.



Maybe when they do "fireman" stuff...

I saw a crew getting ready for a practice burn. A firefighter was on the boom of the ladder truck cutting away a limb. No attachment to the boom, one handing a rear handle saw, yup, REAR handle! He was leaning way out too. Four inch limb with no bottom cut. The branch ripped and pulled the saw down. Good thing he didn't get pulled off the boom. No STand Clear/All clear. Face shield down but no eye protection that would pass regs for treeworkers. 

But...they weren't doing treework, they were doing "fireman" work so our rules don't apply.


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## DDM (Feb 27, 2005)

Elmore said:


> Sunday, February 27, 2005
> Huntsville Times
> 
> Roy Manley Sr., 63, was cutting a tree when another tree fell and struck him in the back of the head



Did he have a leaner in the tree he was cutting? Or did someone else drop a tree on him?


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## Newfie (Feb 27, 2005)

DDM said:


> Did he have a leaner in the tree he was cutting? Or did someone else drop a tree on him?



Sounds like a likely scenario.That was my first thought.


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## NeTree (Feb 27, 2005)

Remind you of a certain neighbor, Mike?


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## clearance (Feb 27, 2005)

Sorry for the guy, thats too bad. About firemen, 99% boredom, 1% bravery&danger. Mostly good guys but I think that some of them really think they know it all. I saw them hosing down a three-phase transformer that was on fire. We were doing res. a few houses away, all of us utility arborists. One guy from our crew called the emergency phone # of the utility, asked them to de-energize the line, walked over to the firemen and told them to get back and stop spraying. The head guy looked at him like he was retarded and said "we are firemen!". Cant judge what happened here without a fatality investigation report. Sometimes even the very best fallers get thier ticket punched by crazy stuff beyond thier control. Sad.


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## Newfie (Feb 28, 2005)

NeTree said:


> Remind you of a certain neighbor, Mike?


 

The tepee builder?


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## NeTree (Feb 28, 2005)

Newfie said:


> The tepee builder?



yeah... HIM.


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## treechick (Feb 28, 2005)

dayman said:


> I saw a crew getting ready for a practice burn. A firefighter was on the boom of the ladder truck cutting away a limb. No attachment to the boom, one handing a rear handle saw, yup, REAR handle! He was leaning way out too. Four inch limb with no bottom cut. The branch ripped and pulled the saw down. Good thing he didn't get pulled off the boom. No STand Clear



I've heard of fatalities in our industry during the practice of rescue climbs. Such a bummer to try to prepare for the worst, only to discover that the practice methods are dangerous in and of themselves. But it seems a lot of times, these disasters are the best learning tools.
My heart goes out to the Alabama man's family. Justdammit. <head down>


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## ray benson (Mar 3, 2005)

Firefighter update. Not much info on the accident.
http://www.al.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1109672253203160.xml?huntsvilletimes?nfare


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