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| Rescued inmate escapes severe burns |
| By Pasadena Star-News |
| Published: 10/23/2002 |
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An inmate rescued by a firefighter while tackling the 38,094-acre Williams Fire above Azusa said the rescuer saved him from serious burns. The inmate, Del Karnes, 40, of the Oak Glen Conservation Camp in Yucaipa, said he fell down a steep slope at Follows Camp Sept. 25 after a boulder hit him, breaking his ankle. He landed on his face in smoldering backfire brush. The next thing Karnes knew, U.S. Forest Service firefighter Jim Jones, 27, was yanking him out of the burn area, offering medical aid. Jones, based out of the Cleveland National Forest station, said he was below Karnes and saw him tumble down. 'He rolled about 50 feet or so ... into a burn area which we had lit. I just started running toward him. As soon as he stopped I grabbed him,' Jones said. He dragged the 6-foot-2-inch, 200-pound groggy inmate away from danger. Karnes suffered a broken ankle and was moved Oct. 9 to Sierra Conservation Camp in Northern California to have a pin put in his ankle. Karnes and about 35 other inmates from the Oak Glen Camp were working alongside hundreds of firefighters on the Williams Fire before the accident. The firemen were working beside a dirt road cutting a 500- foot fireline around Follows Camp to protect it. They had lighted backfires from the line, Karnes said, but the blaze jumped the line and the men were putting it out. Karnes said he might have been able to roll away on his own, but Jones' actions kept him from serious burns. 'I couldn't get out of the way because I was in a ravine. I was trying to get up. But he saved me,' Karnes said. Jones, of San Diego, said he ran down the hill after Karnes. 'The area he landed in was smoldering and there were flames behind us,' Jones said. Capt. Mark Miller of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the burn area Karnes rolled into was more than 2,000 degrees. 'He (Jones) went in there and hauled him out like a piece of luggage,' Miller said. Jones received a medal for his actions. He said he didn't have a chance to talk to Karnes after the incident. Karnes said he hopes to meet Jones someday. 'To thank him in person,' he said. It was the first time an Oak Glen inmate had been injured in such an accident, said California Department of Corrections Lt. Thomas P. Carey. 'It was a freak accident,' Carey said. For the next six weeks, Karnes will be in a cast and off firelines. Inmates at the camp, built in 1936 and sequestered in the San Bernardino National Forest, drew pictures of fire on Karnes' cast. The Williams Fire destroyed 62 cabins and cost $15.3 million to fight. |
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