FORKS — A 25-year-old Forks man died early Monday in an industrial logging accident.
The fatality occurred 25 miles south of Forks in the remote Nolan Creek area southwest of the Hoh River in Jefferson County, said Derek Allen, Jefferson County sheriff’s deputy.
Authorities would not identify the man pending notification of his wife, who is in Alaska, Allen said Monday.
The emergency call about the accident was made at 9:29 a.m. Monday.
Allen said he arrived at 10:36 a.m. at the work site located 10 miles up logging roads east of U.S. Highway 101.
Wind, rain and low-lying fog prevented a rescue helicopter from landing, he added.
CPR was performed at the scene before the man was transported by ambulance to Forks Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Allen said.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the accident, as is the state Department of Labor and Industries, which investigates all workplace mishaps, agency spokeswoman Elaine Fischer said.
There was nothing suspicious about the incident, which did not involve logging equipment or the man falling, Allen said.
He declined to give more specific details on the cause of death while the accident was under investigation.
Working on ground
The man was working on the ground, filling in at a position that was not his permanent post, Allen said.
He was working in a crew of seven.
An Olympic National Park ranger also responded to the incident.
The man who died Monday was the second industrial logging fatality this year in Jefferson County and seventh in the state of Washington.
Four of the seven occurred in Lewis County.
“The young age of several of them is especially tragic,” Fischer said.
No fatalities have occurred in Clallam County in 2014.
But both loggers who died this year lived in Clallam County.
Coyle Road death
Jeremy Paapke, 23, of Port Angeles was working for a private company Sept. 25 on state Department of Natural Resources land on Coyle Road in Jefferson County when he was struck by a tree felled by a co-worker.
Typically, there are one or two logging fatalities a year in the entire state, Fischer said.
“While we don’t know why there have been more incidents this year, in the cases where the investigations are complete, we found typical
logging hazards that could have been prevented with the proper safety measures.”
Twenty-eight loggers have now died on work sites in Washington state from 2004 through 2014.
“That does not include injuries where loggers were catastrophically injured,” Fischer said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
