page_title: Hotshot crew
section_title: Fatal accidents
hierarchical_section_title: Hotshot crew / Fatal accidents
caption_attribution_description: English: El Cariso Hotshots Crew 2 - October 1966 Left to right, Back: Glen Spady, Pat Chase, Pete Achberger, Fred Danner, John Figlo, Joe Smalls, Mike White Middle: Jerry Smith, Joe Beaty, Ken Barnhill, Frank Keesling, Tom Rother Front: Richard Leak, Raymond Chee From Crew 2: John Figlo, Mike White, Ken Barnhill, and Raymond Chee, died from burns received on the Loop Fire of November 1, 1966. Carl Shilcutt and Fred Danner died in the hospital at a later time.
context_page_description: In the United States, a hotshot crew, formally known as an interagency hotshot crew, is a handcrew of 20-22 wildland firefighters that respond to large, high-priority fires across the country and are assigned to work the most challenging parts of the fire. They have specific qualifications to provide leadership for initial-attack and extended-attack on wildland fires, and are trained/equipped to work in remote areas for extended periods of time with little logistical support. Hotshot crews are the most highly trained, skilled, and experienced type of handcrews. Hotshot crews are organized by agencies such as the United States Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, and state and county agencies. The National Interagency Fire Center in coordinates hotshot crews on the national level.
context_section_description: On November 1, 1966, the El Cariso hotshot crew were trapped by flames in the Loop Fire as they worked on a steep hillside in Pacoima Canyon in Angeles National Forest. An unanticipated upslope wind came up in the afternoon and a spot fire was fanned and funneled up the steep canyon. The crew were cutting handline downhill and most of the crew were unable to reach safety in the few seconds they had. Ten members of the crew died on the Loop Fire that day, and another two members died from burn injuries in the following days. Most of the 19 El Cariso crew members who survived were critically burned and remained hospitalized for some time. The Downhill Indirect Checklist, improved firefighting equipment and better fire behavior training resulted, in part, from lives lost on this fire.
  On July 6, 1994, nine members of a hotshot crew based in Prineville, Oregon, died after being overtaken by the fast-moving Storm King fire west of Glenwood Springs, Colorado.  Five other firefighters, three smokejumpers and two helitack firefighters, also died in the conflagration.
  On June 30, 2013, the Prescott Fire Department's hotshot crew perished in the Yarnell Hill Fire near Yarnell, Arizona. Nineteen of the twenty members of the crew were killed when their escape route was cut off by an approaching fire. All nineteen entrapped members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots deployed their fire shelters. The incident was made into a film, Only the Brave.
caption: 1966 El Cariso Hotshots Crew 2
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