Mill Creek Fire Entrapment Fatalities 1928

Two firefighters, Luis Chacon, an 18-year-old barber in San Bernardino, and a man identified as F. Romero, were entrapped and killed on the Mill Creek Fire in the San Bernardino Mountains west of Angelus Oaks, California. The men were part of a crew of 97 firefighters under the leadership of a few San Bernardino National Forest rangers. This large group was split into two separate crews, one of 70 and one of 27 firefighters, the latter of which attempted to hold the fire in the head of Crystal Creek. The ranger leading the crew determined that spot fires were growing below the crew and attempted to order the crew out of the unburned fuel in the canyon and into the nearby black. Two firefighters did not hear or did not understand the call to retreat from the line, and were caught in a fire run. Newspapers refer to numerous other injured firefighters from other incidents being treated with the aid of the Red Cross. 

Entrapment, Fatality, Extended Attack, Hand Crews