McKenzie County Farmer - Archive

Kristen Jones
Special to the Farmer

On Saturday, Oct. 5, 19 year-old Tel Sorenson, was seriously injured during his family’s efforts to assist first responders in fighting a raging fire near the Sorenson Family’s property.
Kadie Sorenson, Tel’s mother, explained, “Well, when the winds picked up, my husband and our hired guy, Weston, were trying to get our blades out to make a fire line. So they were taking the tractors out and so they could help stop the fire.”
She continued to explain that Tel and his younger brother Stran went to get one of the family’s smaller fire units to put out hot spots in the areas that had already been hit by the fire.
“We have a smaller fire unit that is pressurized and our boys, they’ve been around it, but they decided to check it to see if it was full of water,” she explained.
Jarvis Sorenson, Tel’s dad, continued explaining, “We were just going out to help the neighbors, and that fire was wanting to spread. It was mostly going on away from our place, but we were just still helping the neighbors.”
That was when the two teens went to check one of the units to make sure there was water in it.
Unfortunately, neither realized that the until was still pressurized and when Tel went to open the hatch, the lid, propelled by the pressure remaining in the tank, flew back and struck him in the head.

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