It has been 49 years and three days since 12 wildland firefighters perished on the Loop Fire, November 1, 1966. The El Cariso Hotshots were constructing fireline on the Angeles National Forest in southern California when the fire blew up below them. Rich Leak, a Captain on the crew at the time, has written a description of the disaster in which he points out factors that led to the incident as well as some lessons learned. Below is a link to his account.
A Loop Fire survivor describes the disaster
- Bill Gabbert












