Mill Creek Fire Entrapment Fatalities 1928

Two firefighters, Luis Chacon, an 18-year-old barber from San Bernardino, and a man identified either as F. Romero or Manuel Vasquez, were entrapped and killed on the Mill Creek Fire in the San Bernardino Mountains west of Angelus Oaks, California. These two men were part of a crew of 97 firefighters under the leadership of San Bernardino National Forest rangers. This large group was split into two separate crews, one with 70 and the other with 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 them and attempted to order the crew out of the unburned fuel in the canyon and into the nearby black. Two firefighters, Chacon and F. Romero (or Manuel Vasquez) 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 at this same time being treated with the aid of the Red Cross. 

Entrapment, Fatality, Extended Attack, Hand Crews