Copernicus Peak Lookout Medical Emergency Fatality 1965

Wanda Woods, a fire lookout at Copernicus Peak on the Santa Clara Ranger Unit of the California Department of Forestry (now CAL FIRE), passed away of an apparent heart attack in her lookout station while on duty on the night of October 6, 1965. Woods called at 1900 to the CDF Smith Creek Fire Station, seven miles away, indicating she was experiencing chest pains and would radio if they got worse. Radio calls from the ranger at Smith Creek to Woods later in the evening went unanswered, so a telescope engineer from the nearby Lick Observatory was asked to check on her. She was found unresponsive on her bed in the lookout. 

While Eva Schicke is recognized as the first female firefighter in CDF/CAL FIRE service to lose her life in the line of duty on the 2004 Tuolumne Fire, Wanda Woods is the first recorded female employee of the California state fire service to pass away on duty, according to the California Fire Foundation's Memorial database. 

Medical or Exertion or Heat, Fatality, Medical Emergency