Southern California Fire Whirls Turned Deadly in 1959

50 years ago on August 8, 1959, Lake Elsinore was completely dry, hot and sticky. Just after sundown on the Ortega Highway, southeast of Los Angeles in Southern California, there was an automobile accident with two teenagers inside. They went off the highway and plunged 200 feet. The automobile accident sparked a fire that continued to travel downhill. The USFS and California Division of Forestry units were the first on the scent to the fire that was named the "Decker Fire" and the CDF Units arrived just shortly after.

The fire was moving downhill because at the time there was a breakdown in wind slope winds and it moved downhill about ½ of a mile and was burning in a flat area about ¼ of a mile. As the firefighter were on scene trying to control the fire, down slope winds stopped and a sudden release of heat in the flat set up a large scale eddy which moved upslope and developed into one or more extremely intense fire whirls. These fire whirls went up and down the ridges and reached back up towards the Ortega Highway with exceedingly fast and hot fire. Fire whirls also have the name of fire devil or fire tornados and they are a rare phenomenon in which fire (under certain conditions) acquire a vertical vorticity and forms a tornado-like effect of a vertically oriented rotating column of air and are very dangerous.

There was a warning from one of the firefighters to the others, but within a matter of seconds from that warning, a tremendous blast of heat passed over the highway. Everyone tried to get to safety, some were shaken up and suffered from smoke inhalation, some were critically burned, and several died as a result of their burns. The driver that was in the automobile accident died also and a passenger was critically injured.

During 1959, none of the firefighters that were involved in this accident were equipped with fire-resistant clothing or fire shelters. Today, it is mandatory that the firemen are equipment with these. The fires were so intense that they actually left a pattern of a whirl that you can clearly see on the ground. There were even no rocks that were left smaller than a softball where the main whirl crossed the ridge and winds reached 75 - 125 miles per hour.

The names were posted of the men that died in the Decker Fire, but were overrun by much brush and vandalism over the years. The California Wildland Firefighter Memorial replaced the memorial for the vandalized Decker Fire Memorial of the 7 local firefighters that died. The official groundbreaking ceremony was on October 10, 1996. The second phase was the dedication of State Highway 74 as the California Wildland Firefighters Memorial Highway from Grand Avenue in Lake Elsinore to San Juan Capistrano in the spring of 1997. On August 9, 2009, there will be a Decker Fire Remembrance at the Wildland Firefighter Memorial at Highway 74 and S. Main Divide. The event starts at 10:00 AM.

CDF Firefighter John D. Guthrie was the last of the firefighters to die on September 14, 1959 where 85% of his body was burned. It was resolved by the Assembly of the State of California that the Senate concurred that dedication of a portion of State Highway Route 215 between the Ramona Expressway Exit, at post mile 31.08 and its junction with State Route 74, at post mile 26.31 be in honor of John D. Gurthrie by officially designating that route as the CDF Firefighter John D. Guthrie Memorial Highway.

August 8, 2009 is a day to remember these men and all the firefighters out there who risk their lives to save people and our communities.

Sources and Resources:

http://www.myfirecommunity.net/SearchResults.aspx

http://www.rvcfire.org/opencms/memorial/CaliforniaWildlandFirefighterMemorial.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_whirl

http://www.rvcfire.org/opencms/index.html

http://cwfm.info/

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2001/08/12/export15877.txt

http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_0101-0150/acr_107_bill_20080222_introduced.pdf