Platina Fire Engine Accident Fatalities 1956

Four California Department of Forestry (now CAL FIRE) firefighters were killed when their engine went off the road and into a ravine as they returned from a 150-acre fire in Platina on the night of August 17. Francis Hackett, Colin Haywood, Jerome O'Leary, and Harry Rucker were traveling in an open-backed engine along the Ono-Igo Road when the vehicle left the roadway on a sharp corner and struck two trees before hitting the wall of a gully. While his comrades were killed in the accident, Rucker was taken to the hospital but was pronounced dead there shortly after. The engine crew had been on the fire for two days and one night before they left to return to their station in Redding. 

Engine Incident or Accident, Fatality, Driving, Engines