Butte Ranger Unit Engine Accident Fatalities 1949

Rudy Gaub, David Keeney, and Bruce Weatherbee, firefighters with the California Department of Forestry (now CAL FIRE) on the Butte Ranger Unit, were fatally injured when the engine they were riding suffered mechanical failure of the axle and rolled over en route to a fire. The engine, staffed with four firefighters, was responding to a string of initial attack fires in rural Butte County near Bangor. When the engine overturned, Keeney was trapped underneath, and Gaub and Weatherbee were violently thrown from the vehicle. All three were riding in the open back of the engine. Keeney was only freed when a passing log truck pulled it over with a cable, he died shortly after the accident. Bruce Weatherbee survived two days in the hospital following the accident, and Gaub passed away on November 4. The fourth firefighter, James Foster, was hospitalized for an extended period with a broken pelvis and arm. 

Engine Incident or Accident, Fatality, Initial Attack, Driving, Engines