![]() ![]() He came from a bulldozing family - his father was a dozer driver for Cal Fire, and the two started a grading and excavating business. “He was a man’s man, and he was a father first and foremost.” “Braden would go to a fire, get covered in dirt, come home and play crocodile with his kids on his living room carpet,” Mullis said. The deaths have weighed heavily on dozer drivers busy with an active fire season across the Western United States - a reminder of the perils that await them on the fire line.ĭean Mullis, a childhood friend of Varney’s and a fellow heavy equipment operator for Cal Fire, said Varney was devoted to his family and unfailingly generous. Another dozer operator was killed in the same region in 2007 when his rig rolled, causing him to hit his head on the wall of the cab, according to Cal Fire investigative reports. Their deaths come two years after a dozer trying to maneuver around a fire engine overturned near Big Sur and the operator was ejected. Privately hired operators have various experience levels, but all must complete an annual course in fire line safety.Īuthorities have released little information about how Varney and Smith died. “The job that they do, it takes a special person, because they’re going up and down really steep terrain.”ĭozer operators looking to work directly for Cal Fire, the state’s firefighting agency, must have 500 hours of experience just to be considered. “They’re a special breed of guys,” said Cliff Allen, president of the union representing California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection personnel, including dozer operators. Others build “contingency lines” farther back to act as a backstop if the first line is breached. Fire moves faster than heavy machines, so shifting winds can send flames toward bulldozers.īecause dozers can get into places no other equipment can reach, the drivers sometimes find themselves far away from backup, relying on radio traffic and aircraft to tell them what the fire is doing. It’s hard to see because of smoke and the dirt they kick up. Soft soils or hard granite can cause them to slide. ![]() At the very least, it generally will slow down the flames.ĭozers usually work in small groups, but sometimes alone, in extremely steep terrain. Ideally, the lack of fuel will stop the fire’s progress. They use roughly 10-foot (3-meter) blades to push aside shrubs, brush, grass and even trees so the advancing flames meet bare dirt and have nothing to consume. It’s a rush.”ĭozers are an integral part of the battle against large blazes but are rarely seen in dramatic images of flaming trees and raining ash. You’re getting to see 200- to 300-foot flame lengths. “To me, it’s the closest thing to war without getting shot at,” said Dustin Westfall, a dozer operator working for a private contractor on the fire near Redding that’s killed six people.
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