Yaksum Canyon Fire Entrapment Fatalities 1929

According to the Cashmere Valley Record of Cashmere, Washington:

"William Doelle was one of the fire wardens for this community. When the word was out that there was a fire up Yaksum Canyon, he immediately started with several men for the scene of action, getting to the fire at 11:30. He immediately went into action to control it when the accident occurred.

Doelle, David Coon and Jack Peck, state fire warden, were returning from having been on the ridge with the fire under control and seeing it again roaring up the canyon. Doelle and Coon started down, evidently with some plan in mind to check its advance. Peck called to them that it was foolish to enter such a furnace and to turn back. Mr. Coon's son, Manuel, who was with them, turned back and ran for his life. Peck, who was on horseback and was unable to take the horse up the steep incline, rode around and was caught in the fire before getting to safety. He could not tell just where the men had disappeared to but was sure something must have happened to them as they were in a sheet of flames when a quick change of the wind had entrapped them.

This was in a section of grass and greasewood, not timber, that burned like gasoline, fanned by 35-mile winds--so that the men did not have a chance after getting into the path of the fire. The charred remains of Doelle and Coon were brought to Cashmere at 5 o'clock Tuesday evening [July 2]."