Camas Creek Fire Entrapment Fatalities 1929

On August 13, 1929, two firefighters were entrapped and died on the Camas Creek Fire on the Chelan National Forest (now the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest) in Washington. Several days before this fatal entrapment, Douglas Ingram, the Pacific Northwest Regional Range Manager, led his fire crew into a clearing to let the fire blow over them as they lay prone. During this entrapment, it is reported that: “Ingram whittled and told stories while the fire raged on all sides of their little clearing and finally passed over, leaving the men unharmed.” Then, on August 13, Ingram and young local firefighter Ernani St. Luise of the Chelan National Forest became entrapped together between McFarland and Squaw creeks, two miles from where they were last seen. Their bodies were discovered two weeks later where they had been entrapped.

Entrapment, Fatality, Fire Behavior