Incident Date: November 1, 1966
Department: El Cariso Hotshots (CA)
Number of Line-of-Duty Deaths: 12
The Loop Fire started after 5:00 am on November 1, 1966, from a faulty electrical line at the U.S. Army’s Los Pinetos Nike Missile Site in the Angeles National Forest. The fire rapidly spread from the mountain top to the urban areas, being pushed by the 60 mile an hour Santa Ana winds. While operating at the wildfire, the El Cariso Hotshots were trapped by flames as they worked in the Pacoima Canyon, the Santa Ana winds changed direction, trapping them in a sudden blow-up of fire. Ten members of the crew perished in the Loop Fire that day. Another two members succumbed from burn injuries in the following days. Most of the nineteen members who survived were critically burned and remained hospitalized for some time. As a result of this fire, the Downhill Indirect Checklist was created, to improve firefighting equipment and fire behavior training.
Firefighters Who Died AS a Result of the Wildfire:
Related:
- The Loop Fire Disaster Report
- Personal Accounts of Events by Rich Leak, El Cariso Hotshots
- A Bried of the Report of the Group Assigned to Analyze the Loop Fire Accident
- Loop fire, 43 years ago
- It’s been 50 years since 12 Hotshots died in the Loop Fire. Here’s how family, survivors remember them
More About Memorial Monday
Memorial Monday is established to remember the sacrifice of firefighters who died in the line of duty before the National Memorial was created in 1981. On the last Monday of every month, a firefighter, or groups of firefighters, will be remembered through information located about the firefighter and their sacrifice.
- Memorial Monday—Commission House Fire Sparked by Storm in the Nation’s Capital
- Memorial Monday— Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906
- Miller Furniture Company Fire Claims Two Denver Firefighters
- The Millard Hotel Fire: Remembering Local Fire Inspector and Six Omaha Firefighters
- Seven-alarm Little Rock Fire: Remembering Firefighters Jerry Jacobs and Eric Oliver
- Simultaneous Chicago Fires: Remembering Firefighter Joseph P. Carone and Six Injured Firefighters
- Inaja Fire: Cleveland National Forest
- Remembering New York City’s 23rd Street Fire
- Benton Harbor, MI: The Yore Opera House Fire
- Austin, Texas: The Kreisle Building Fire and Firefighter Glass
- Chicago World’s Fair: Cold Storage Fire
- Memorial Monday – Hotel Vendome Fire (MA)
- Memorial Monday – Barson’s Deli Fire (PA)
- Memorial Monday – Davidson Theatre Fire (WI)
- Memorial Monday – Quackenbush Warehouse Fire (NJ)
- Memorial Monday – New Haven Apparatus Crash (CT)
- Memorial Monday – Wilmington Apparatus Crash (DE)
- Memorial Monday – Chicago Union Stockyards Fire (IL)
- Memorial Monday – Boston Toy Factory Fire (MA)
- Memorial Monday – Baltimore Warehouse Fire (MD)
- Memorial Monday – Gulf Oil Refinery Fire (PA)
- Memorial Monday – Kingman Explosion (AZ)
- Memorial Monday – St. Louis Apparatus Crash (MO)
- Memorial Monday – Uptown Shelby Explosion (NC)
- Memorial Monday – Texas City Disaster
- Memorial Monday – Bowen-Merrill Bookstore Fire
- Memorial Monday – Merrimac Street Fire
- Memorial Monday – Butte Warehouse Explosion
- Memorial Monday – Louisville Recreation Center Fire
- Memorial Monday – Wichita Commercial Roof Collapse
- Memorial Monday – Sitka Brush Fire/Explosion
- Memorial Monday – Duluth Street Car Crash
- Memorial Monday – Blackwater Fire
- Memorial Monday – Auburn Apparatus Collision
- Memorial Monday – Swanson Office Building Fire
- Memorial Monday – Jass Manufacturing Company Fire
- Memorial Monday – St. Louis Streetcar Collision
- Memorial Monday – Strand Theatre Fire
- Memorial Monday – Tru-Fit Clothing Company Fire
- Memorial Monday – Hubbard Street Fire
