Viejas Band Kumeyaay Indians Business: Tribe Fire Station

A football player was running a route during football practice. Upon cutting and changing direction, they felt pain in their lower back. The employee was hospitalized with a herniated disc in their lumbar region.

An employee was participating in training. As they were jogging, they sustained a muscle injury.

On May 14, 2022, an employee was strapping their truck and a beam started to fall down. The employee turned and started to run away and injured his quadriceps. He was hospitalized with a muscular injury to the left leg.

An employee had chest pain after chasing a patient who was attempting to leave the unit.

An employee felt faint during a mandatory physical training run. He sat down on the running trail and started going in and out of consciousness. The employee was hospitalized.

A smoke jumper parachuted out of a helicopter during a forest fire response, landed on steep rugged terrain, and suffered femur and rib fractures and a liver laceration. The employee was hospitalized.

Employees were troubleshooting dual duct detectors in a room. The injured employee was on the second rung from the top of a forward-facing 12-foot A-frame ladder. He was reinstalling the duct detector in the furthest duct from him (18 inches). When he pushed the duct detector into the existing holes, the duct broke free and fell, striking his back and shoulders. He was knocked forward over the ladder and fell to the floor. The employee sustained a head injury.

An employee was descending an 8-foot A-frame ladder when he tripped over the fourth step/rung and fell, contacting the floor and a sprinkler pipe that was set on the ground. The employee sustained fractures to his left arm.

An employee working as a contracted firefighter was using a bulldozer to push back an active fire line when they became entrapped in flames, resulting in first- and second-degree burns.

An employee was engaging in daily physical training in preparation for fire season as a smokejumper. The employee sustained swelling and stiffness in their arms and was hospitalized with rhabdomyolysis.

The injured employee was assisting a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) enforcement operation. During an apprehension, officers returned fire at a subject and struck the employee with a bullet. The employee sustained a gunshot wound to their right hand.

The injured employee was assisting in the disassembly phase after a radar array had been lowered and secured. The crew began removing load bearing pins from an overhead crane to free the radome. A load bearing pin was stuck. The injured employee went to remove the pin manually as a second team member applied pressure from the opposite side. The pin unexpectedly released and struck the injured employee s right thumb, resulting in partial amputation of the distal phalanx including an open distal phalanx fracture and nail bed laceration.

An employee was working on an electrical panel in a mechanical room when an arc flash occurred. The employee suffered burns.

At about 3:10 p.m. on October 3, 2025, an employee was inspecting a car. Two dogs that had been in another car were leashed and tethered to a bollard. As the employee inspected the first car along with a narcotics detection dog, one of the other dogs came loose and attacked the narcotics dog. The employee was separating the dogs when the other dog bit his left ring finger. The last joint of the finger was injured and part of it was bitten off.

An employee was preparing a bundle of green onions for chopping. While holding the bundle in his left hand, he made his first cut using a 9-inch kitchen knife held in his right hand. The knife contacted the tip of his left thumb, resulting in an amputation of approximately 0.5 inches of the thumb that required hospitalization.