A CAL FIRE firefighter helping about 2,700 others corral the Glass Fire was hospitalized Tuesday in the Santa Rosa area with symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, the state agency said.
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The firefighter was one of 16 CAL FIRE firefighters who were examined late Tuesday morning at Base Camp at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, said Scott McLean, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as CAL FIRE.
McLean said the other 15 firefighters were medically cleared and sent back to work along the fire lines. The other firefighter was taken to the hospital to determine whether carbon monoxide poisoning occurred.
The CAL FIRE spokesman said he didn’t have any information about the condition of the hospitalized firefighter, including whether the firefighter remained in the hospital late Tuesday afternoon.
The firefighter’s potential exposure to carbon monoxide did not occur while fighting the wildfire or at base camp, McLean told The Sacramento Bee. He also said authorities were trying to determine where it happened.
“It’s all still fluid right now, they’re investigating this to determine what happened and prevent it from happening again,” McLean said.
The Glass Fire burning in Napa and Sonoma counties has raged since Sept. 27 and burned more than 66,000 acres, CAL FIRE said in a Tuesday morning incident update. Firefighters had 50% of the wildfire contained.
The wildfire has destroyed 600 homes, and more than 21,000 structures were still considered threatened Tuesday morning, according to CAL FIRE.
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