SC Wildland Firefighter, Biologist Dies in Prescribed Burn

July 15, 2019
Angela "Nicole" Chadwick-Hawkins, a civilian employee at Columbia's Fort Jackson, died during a 424-acre burn at the installation May 22.

Authorities are still investigating the death of a certified wildland firefighter and wildlife biologist during a prescribed burn in South Carolina in May.

Angela "Nicole" Chadwick-Hawkins, a civilian employee at Columbia's Fort Jackson, was using an all-terrain vehicle while performing a ground ignition operation during the 424-acre burn May 22, the U.S. Fire Administration said in a statement released Monday. Radio contact with Chadwick-Hawkins, 45, and a search was started to find her.

Crews from the Fort Jackson Fire Department, as well as Moncrief Army EMS and Fort Jackson Military Police, arrived after Chadwick-Hawkins had been found. Emergency personnel found that she had suffered fatal injuries, and she was pronounced dead at the scene, according the USFA.

No cause of death has been determined, the federal agency added. The Army Criminal Investigation Division, along with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the U.S. Army Combat Readiness/Safety Center Accident Investigation Team, are investigating the incident.

"She touched many lives both personally and professionally," said Douglas Morrow, a fellow wildlife biologist and Chadwick-Hawkins' supervisor, during a memorial service in June, according to the U.S. Army's website.

Chadwick-Hawkins was a mother of three including two sons younger than 10 and a well-known, respected biologist, The State in Columbia reports. Known as the "woodpecker lady" for her work helping to save Fort Jackson's rare red-cockaded woodpeckers, she had previously worked at the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources after earning degrees from Auburn University and Virgnia Tech.

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