Brothers and Sisters,

It is my sad duty to report the death of HFEO Matt Will of the San Benito Monterey Unit while fighting a fire in Monterey County yesterday. Matt passed away today at 08:55 hours as a result of his injuries which he sustained in a rollover accident involving his dozer unit.  Matt leaves behind a wife and two young children, his immediate family were present at his side at the time of death.  I was at the hospital this morning until 02:30 hours before returning to Sacramento to coordinate our support.

Details of the accident are under investigation and a CAL FIRE accident investigation team (Ferreira) has been assigned. 

Per procedure I have taken the following action:

HFEO Bill McDonald of MMU Chapter has been assigned to the AIT as the CDF Firefighters member.

TCU Chapter Rank and File Rep Andy Murphy has been assigned to member representation as a resource to the accident investigation team per CDF Firefighters policy, he has set up camp and is available to our members should they need or elect to have union representation during the investigation, the team IC has been advised.

IV District Vice President Billy See has been assigned as the CDF Firefighters liaison to the funeral and planning team in Monterey Unit.

Santa Clara Chapter Director Mike Borelli has been assigned as the CDF Firefighters liaison to the family support group.

San Jose City Firefighters President Randy Sekany of local 230 and his staff have been very supportive and have several representatives assisting with family support.

The CDF Firefighters honor Guard has been activated and will be deploying to the hospital to provide sentinel duty and to start the process of planning a fitting tribute to matt’s sacrifice.

The following notifications have been completed per procedure:

General Vice President

Finance Director

Rank and File Director

Supervisor Director

Retiree Director

Past President

Chief Legal Council

Public Policy Director

Political Director

Auxiliary Director

CDFEA Benevolent Fund Trustees

CPF President

IAFF 10^th District Vice President

Insurance Advisor

IAFF Line of Duty Death Staff

Additional actions underway include:

Completing line of duty death filing with IAFF/CPF

Development of a  Web Page honoring Matt Will

Developing a web announcement for CPF leadership alert

Identifying insurance and other financial assistance to the family

Support of the funeral

Family support

Honor Guard deployment support

Safety Stand Down Request:

I have requested the department consider a Department wide Safety Stand Down for all transport dozer units at a minimum  and if possible all personnel to review safety protocols and reflect on their own personal safety.  I have not gotten a response so far.

This is just a quick briefing of the current situation, I plan to send you a much more inclusive report as I get additional information.

Respectfully,

Bob Wolf, President

CDF Firefighters Local 2881

IAFF AFL-CIO-CLC