Mt Washington Fire Entrapment Fatality 1919

On June 9, 1919, Lieutenant Roman Waldemar Ritters of the Los Angeles Fire Department was entrapped and succumbed to burn injuries received on a fire in the hilly Mt. Washington neighborhood of Los Angeles. Ritters was leading a crew of firefighters with Hose Company No. 1 when he became entrapped in what some media reports described as "a backfire." Other reports indicate that he was attempting to save homes from the advancing grass and brush fire and may have received his burns as a result of a burning house. He received serious burns and perished in the hospital 11 days later. Ritters' death certificate lists the cause of death as septicemia (blood poisoning) brought about by burns received during a brush fire.

This fire on Mt. Washington necessitated a 52-alarm response from the Los Angeles Fire Department--at that time, the largest fire response ever by the department.