9
January/February 2026
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THE DAVEY BULLETIN
INTEGRITY
While on the job at a shopping center in Cleveland, a
Commercial Landscape Services crew saw a parked SUV
smoking from the rear
window. As they
approached the car,
they noticed the fire
came from the battery
bank in the car's trunk.
Bill Morlock quickly
ran and grabbed a fire
extinguisher from his
work truck, worked
to put out the flames
and monitored the fire
as it restarted a few
times while the
batteries continued to
short out and melt. Other crew members assisted
in talking to the car's owner and retrieved another
extinguisher from a Davey truck.
They ended up using two extinguishers until the fire
department arrived.
"I didn't consider it to be nerve-racking, as earlier in the
year we had safety meetings and went over the
requirement of the trucks to have fire extinguishers that
are rated for all types of fire," Morlock, crew leader,
Cleveland North CLS, said. "Hopefully in doing this, the
people who witnessed it and those who were able to safely
move their cars away, and the property management see
the value of having Davey on the scene."
SUV FIRE SWIFTLY
EXTINGUISHED BY CREW
While enroute to a job, Charlie Stewart, UVM technician,
and Kyle McCleese, UVM specialist, Davey Resource
Group, noticed an elderly woman on the side of the
highway flagging passersby for help. Her car was on fire
– a few minutes away from being a "pretty bad" situation,
according to Stewart.
The two pulled over, helped the woman get out of traffic
and about 100 feet away from the vehicle and called 911.
While waiting for help to arrive, Stewart and McCleese
were able to safely extinguish the fire. The woman, who
was visibly shaken, and the fire department thanked them
for lending a hand.
"I don't like to see anybody in distress," Stewart said.
"I'm glad we could help out, especially because other
cars weren't stopping."
DRG CREW MITIGATES
CAR FIRE
DRG employees Charlie Stewart and
Kyle McCleese assisted a woman
whose car was on fire on U.S. Route
52 in Southern Ohio.
Bill Morlock, crew leader,
Cleveland North CLS
Q & A with Employees
Kevin Ahn
tree care coordinator
Arbor Tree Service, a Davey company
Q: What do you do to keep safety a priority for you and your crew?
A: Leading by example is the best way for me to have an impact
on a daily basis. It's just making sure I am doing all the little
things that show the importance of safety and setting that
precedent so that way everybody else understands, 'If this is a
leader and this is how he acts, then I should probably follow suit.'
Kyle McCleese
Charlie Stewart
