North Pass Fire Entrapment 2012

The North Pass wildland fire incident started with a lightning strike on August 18, 2012. The fire progressed to over 25,000 acres and on Saturday, August 25, a municipal strike team of engines was assigned to hold a dozer line near Forest Road M1. In the late afternoon hours embers from a burning oak tree, located in the black, spotted across the line and ran to the ridge top. Positioned along the ridge, above the spot, were two engines from a Southern California strike team. Their mission was to hold the line from the north side. They were unaware, until the last few minutes, that fire was running their direction from the south side burning over one of the engines while concurrently entrapping another engine forcing the crew to shelter-in-vehicle on the same dozer line. There were no injuries.