Little Rockies Fire Entrapment Fatalities 1936

Several firefighters, nearly all untrained, were entrapped by a fire run in the Little Rockies area south of Malta, Montana. At the time of the entrapment, 400 firefighters were engaged on this fire, including: residents of Malta, miners from the nearby mines, and 20 geology college students led by Dr. Maxwell Knechtel. The volunteers were placed under the direction of a U.S. Forest Service ranger, James Pewitt. Pewitt was the only trained firefighter leader on this entire fire. 

When a wind shift caused a sudden crown run between 1200 and 1300 hours, a group of firefighters took refuge in a cave. Firefighters John Roles, Cameron Baker, and Sawyer Brockunier were overcome by the fire and perished--either on the scene or shortly after at the hospital. It is unclear whether the three were in the cave and left, or were overcome trying to reach the safety of the cave. During this crown run incident, several other firefighters received burn injuries from which they recovered. The coroner's inquest included several witness statements criticizing the lack of adequate supervision and the use of so many untrained firefighters to attempt to suppress this fire. 

Entrapment, Burn Injury, Fatality, Hand Crews