Hacienda Fire Entrapment Fatalities 1955

A Los Angeles fire captain and five minors in a county probation program at Forestry Camp 5-1 were killed when they were entrapped in a eucalyptus grove on the Hacienda Fire in La Habra, California. The fire was initial attacked by two LA County engines and the Forestry Camp crew. The crew's part of the fire reportedly was very quiet, with no open flame. A sudden gust of wind increased fire behavior explosively. The crew captain, Glenn Rockey, saw that the crew of 14 youth firefighters were being overrun by fire and attacked the fire with one-inch hose in an attempt to rescue the teenagers. While most of the crew survived the entrapment, four of the crew were killed and seven more were burned, including a 40-year-old foreman. 

The entrapment was blamed on, "a phenomenon of fire which experts find unpredictable and not well understood," described as a "sudden explosion." 

Those lost on the Hacienda Fire were: Franklin Fay, Terry Kelly, Glenn Laverne Pendergast, Glenn Rockey, Gregory Sambrano, and William Strock.

Entrapment, Fatality, Hand Crews, Burn Injury, Fire Behavior