FOREST SERVICE NEWS

SOUTHWESTERN REGION

RELEASE IMMEDIATE

RECEIVED NOV 1960

GILA NATIONAL FOREST FOREMAN WINS SAFETY AWARD

Victor Christensen, crew foreman on the Gila National Forest's Frisco Ranger District at Reserve, New Mexico, has been awarded the National Safety Council President's Award for saving the life of Joe Rosetta, a Santo Domingo Indian firefighter who was overcome by monoxide fumes while on fire duty in California last year. The award was presented to Christensen today by Southwestern Regional Forester Fred H. Kennedy at an employee family meeting in the Forest Service regional office here. Accompanying Mr. Christensen to the presentation was Richard D. Johnson of Silver City, Supervisor of the Gila National Forest.

Christensen saved Rosetta's life when both men were assigned to fight a 20,000 acre forest fire on El Dorado National Forest north of Riverton, California. Rosetta was a member of the Domingos, one of the famed Indian fire crews organized and trained by the Forest Service; and with that crew he had been taken by bus and plane to the scene of the fire. Vic Christensen had been assigned as liaison officer---regular Forest Service employee sent with the crew to work with it and look after its interests, safety and welfare. As such Vic's opportunity came before they even got to work on the blaze. As the crew climbed off an old rented bus at their assigned sector, it was noticed that two of the men, Rosetta and Jose Cruz Lovato, did not move---overcome by fumes from the bus's faulty exhaust system. The two men were quickly carried out and Lovato soon revived in the open air. But Rosetta remained unconscious, with very faint pulse and unnoticeable breathing. Christensen immediately applied artificial respiration, using the new back-pressure-arm-lift method, and radioed for an ambulance. After more than an hour of this careful pumping by Christensen, and before the ambulance arrived, Rosetta came to.

Christensen credits his ability to handle the emergency to the first aid training given all Frisco Ranger District field men the previous spring.

Transcribed from the originals that are pictured on the right.