Bailiff Fire Fall Fatality 1967

During a week of Santa Ana winds and multiple large fires throughout southern California, 200 Native American firefighters from Sells, Arizona, were flown in to help hundreds more firefighters suppress the Bailiff Fire on the San Bernardino National Forest. Frank Rios, 21 years old, died on the night of October 30 while engaged with the fire. The Bailiff Fire flared up at night on a steep slope. Fellow firefighters last saw Rios poised on a big rock near Cabazon shortly before a sudden wind whistled down the eastern slope of Mt. San Jacinto sent them scurrying from an advancing wall of flame. Clyde Doran, the Forest Supervisor of the Coronado National Forest near Rios' home in Arizona, said that an autopsy showed Rios had suffered a fractured skull and was burned to death. He added that preliminary reports indicated that Rios may have fallen while trying to escape a flare-up.

Fatality, Hand Crews, Entrapment, Fall, Fire Behavior