Decker Fire Entrapment Fatalities 1959

The Decker Fire started on August 8, 1959, from a vehicle accident that killed a civilian motorist and injured another on a mountain highway on the Cleveland National Forest in Southern California. Upon discovery, resources from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) and the U.S. Forest Service--including engines, a handcrew, and a hotshot crew--responded to initial attack the fire. An engine crew responding to the fire was caught in a flare-up, with six firefighters receiving burns. Shortly after this, a handcrew riding in an open-backed truck was impacted by a large fire whirl, burning three firefighters, one very seriously. Elsewhere, the hotshot crew was constructing fireline in a downhill operation below the road, until fire behavior prompted them to return back up to the road and fire out the area instead, with the intention of connecting the firing operation to the black from a fire that had occurred weeks earlier. A wind shift pushed the main fire and burnout upslope, merging them into an intense fire that impacted the roadway. Hotshots and engine crewmembers on the road ran to escape this flame front. All burned firefighters from the three entrapments were brought to hospitals, where, in the coming weeks, six people perished from their injuries. 

Those who perished on the Decker Fire: Andrew "Rusty" Brooks, Boyd Edwards, John Guthrie, Nelson Harlan, Stephen Johnson, and Durward "Ben" Slater. 

Burn Injury, Multi Incident Summary, Entrapment, Medevac, Fatality, Initial Attack, Entrapment