Introduction
The Esperanza fire was intentionally set by serial arsonist Raymond Oyler on October 26, 2006, in the San Jacinto Mountains and initially reported early in the morning at 1:11 AM. The fire moved upslope towards State Highway 243 and the highly vulnerable Twin Peaks community. Between 3:30 and 4:00 AM, five engine companies from the San Bernardino National Forest, including Engine 57, arrived to assist and were directed to engage in structure protection in Twin Peaks. Engine 57 arrived at 15400 Gorgonio View Road, a structure also known as the "Octagon House," sometime around 6:00 AM. At 7:10 AM, the fire was sighted in the drainage below the Octagon House. The Octagon House and Engine 57 were overrun by the fire shortly after. Around 8 AM, the five-member crew was found by members of the other engine companies. Three were already dead. One firefighter died in route to the hospital, and the final member died on October 31st. The Esperanza fire, having burned over 40,000 acres and destroyed more than 50 structures, was contained on November 1st. There were no civilian fatalities.
Resources
The Esperanza Fire by Call Number: HV6638.5.U6 .M33 2013ISBN: 9781619020719Publication Date: 2013-02-12"[On March 6, 2009] the jury entered a Riverside County Superior Court room in southern California to render a decision in the trial of Raymond Oyler, charged with murder for setting the Esperanza Fire of 2006, which killed a five-man Forest Service engine crew sent to fight the blaze. Today, wildland fire is everybody's business, from the White House to the fireground. Wildfires have grown bigger, more intense, more destructive--and more expensive. Federal taxpayers, for example, footed most of the $16 million bill for fighting the Esperanza Fire. But the highest cost was the lives of the five-man crew of Engine 57, the first wildland engine crew ever to be wiped out by flames." --publisher
Articles marked IN-PERSON are available at the IFSI Library's physical location, and clicking on the link will take you to the catalog record. Those marked ONLINE can be directly accessed by clicking on the link.
- ONLINE - Firehouse - The Human Element: Revisiting the Lessons of the Esperanza FireThis article from the website of the Firehouse journal draws the same conclusions as many other analyses of the Esperanza Fire: more research needs to be done regarding how human factors, such as the amount of risk a firefighter or crew is under pressure to tolerate, can contribute to or prevent line of duty deaths.
- ONLINE - International Journal of Wildland Fire -Simulation and thermal imaging of the 2006 Esperanza Wildfire in southern California: application of a coupled weather–wildland fire modelThis article discusses how fire researchers used a simulation of the Esperanza Fire (available in 'Online Resources' tab) to explore how interactions with weather conditions affect fire behavior.
- Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center - Esperanza Fire Entrapment FatalitiesThis is the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center's collection of resources related to the investigation and response to the death of Engine 57, including the original and amended citations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the final report of the Accident Investigation Team, and the response to the final report by the captains of other engine crews present at the fire.
- CAL FIRE - Esperanza FireThe CAL FIRE page for the Esperanza Fire lists the personnel and equipment assigned to the fire, the date the fire started and the date it was contained, the damage done, and agencies involved.