PORT TOWNSEND — Andy Palmer, a Port Townsend man who died hours after he was hit by a tree while fellow firefighting crew members and paramedics attempted to get him to safety, died of blood loss from an injured left leg, the National Park Service said in a report released Tuesday.
The July 25, 2008, death of the 18-year-old Port Townsend High School graduate, who was working a seasonal job with Olympic National Park when he was sent to fight the Eagle Fire in Shasta-Trinity National Forest in California, sparked the strengthening of safety protocols for Park Service firefighters.
The report was released the day before the Andy Palmer Memorial Football Game at 7 tonight at Port Townsend High School.
The park service said that the investigation into the death of Palmer — who died of his injuries while being transported from an isolated fire zone near Junction City, Calif. — led the National Park Service Board of Review and the U.S. Forest Service Accident Review Board to develop a Safety Action Plan.
The plan contains eight recommendations to strengthen emergency response planning, training and execution in order to keep a similar incident from occurring again.
“We are grateful for the in-depth analysis of this report and look forward to the implementation of the action plans,” said Andy Palmer’s mother, Janet Palmer, who with husband Dr. Robert Palmer will flip the coin before tonight’s game.
Helped bring closure
The federal report, and the new safety action plan prompted by her son’s death, helped bring closure for her, her husband and Andy’s father, Dr. Robert Palmer — a Port Townsend physician — and the rest of her son’s family, she said.
That family includes two bothers, Rob, a firefighter, and Henry, a merchant mariner, as well as grandparents Bob and Ina Palmer in Sequim, and family in Santa Barbara, Calif., the Netherlands and Canada.
“The greatest resource in the forest is our firefighters, and we applaud the National Park Service and the U. S. Forest Service for their efforts to bring an improved culture of safety to this industry,” she said.
She also said that, while the report took a long time to complete, it was fitting that the Parks Service and Forest Service have made a pledge to increase safety for firefighters a day before the memorial game.
In the 119-page report, park service investigators said they believed there had been insufficient pre-planning to integrate incident personnel into the local emergency management system, given the conditions.
No one was listed as being at fault in Palmer’s death.
The report details Palmer’s final hours as firefighters and paramedics attempted to get Palmer to safety, carrying him as they hiked out of an area too dangerous for the landing of an helicopter.
Never again
“Our intent in releasing this report is for all of us to learn from this incident in order to help prevent reoccurrences of this type of event in the future,” said National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis.
“This is how we will honor Andy, by remembering his commitment to self and colleagues.”
Janet Palmer said having Jarvis involved in the investigation meant a lot to her family.
“This has gone all the way up to the top,” she said. “Andy’s story has touched everybody.
Andy Palmer was struck by a tree that was felled while his four-member crew cleared trees along a bulldozer line, the park service report said.
The tree was a Class C ponderosa pine tree, 36.7 inches in diameter at the point of the cut, and approximately 125 feet tall, the report said.
When that pine was cut, it “fell down slope and contacted the sugar pine. The resulting contact, or vibration from the ponderosa hitting the ground, caused a portion of the sugar pine, approximately 120 feet long, to break off and fall upslope.
“[Palmer] was hit by a piece of sugar pine tree that was 8 feet long and approximately 20 inches in diameter.”
Several hours
The call that Palmer was injured came into the incident command around 1:40 p.m., but it wouldn’t be until around 4:15 p.m. that he was plucked from the fire by helicopter and taken to a nearby hospital.
At 5:10 p.m. that evening, an emergency room physician at Mercy Medical Center in Redding, Calif., pronounced him dead from blood loss due to blunt force trauma to the left leg.
Andy Palmer was born in Port Angeles on Sept. 10, 1989 as the Palmer’s third son. He attended the Children’s Montessori School, Fairview and Franklin Elementary and Roosevelt Middle Schools in Port Angeles and Port Townsend High School after his family moved there.
He was a hobbyist mechanic and avid reader, and worked as volunteer at Big Brothers Big Sisters
At 6-foot-5-inches tall and 240 pounds, he was a natural for football and valued being part of the Port Townsend football team. He graduated as a four-year varsity letterman.
Palmers at football game
The Palmers will sell T-shirts at tonight’s game to raise money for a scholarship in their son’s name.
The Andy Palmer Memorial Scholarship fund was established through the Port Townsend High School Scholarship Foundation.
The scholarship is to go to a student who embodies the tenets Andy Palmer lived his life by: kindness, loyalty, integrity and humility.
“It’s been a rough year,” Janet Palmer said. “We miss Andy terribly every day.
“But Andy would not wish us to grieve, and this community has been so supportive — just incredible.”
Donations to the scholarship fund may be sent to the Foundation at 538 Calhoun St., Port Townsend, WA 98368.
To read the full investigation report, visit the National Park Service Web site devoted to Palmer at http://tinyurl.com/yg9pyvy.
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.