Hauser Creek Fire Entrapment Fatalities 1943

On October 2, 1943, a fire lookout tower reported the Hauser Creek Fire on the Cleveland National Forest in California. Initial-attack resources included numerous U.S. Forest Service firefighters along with 200 U.S. Marines. A group of 90 Marines was tasked with improving a wide strip in a gulch bottom to use as control line for a firing operation. An additional 15 to 20 Marines were tasked with patrolling a nearby road. A sudden wind shift pushed the fire across the gulch, entrapping men in the gulch who were located above this slopover. The majority of the men tried to use the large boulders in the gulch as heat shields from the burning brush, while a few others ran to escape through the flaming front. Three Marines perished in the entrapment, while six more succumbed to critical burn injuries the next day. During this entrapment incident an additional 70 men were burned, some seriously. 

Those U.S. Marines lost on the Hauser Creek Fire: Roger Kirkpatrick, George Lehman, Ralph Peters, Frank Rogers, Wilbur Rossen, Norman Shook, Jr., Ishmael Wesson, Lowell Whetsel, and Elmer Winkelman. 

A U.S. Army soldier firefighter, Leroy Carter, was also apparently entrapped and perished on the Hauser Creek Fire, with a date of death reported as October 3. The details of this accident are not readily available. Carter's death brought the Hauser Creek Fire firefighter death toll to a total of 10 men. 

Burn Injury, Initial Attack, Fatality, Entrapment