The La Brea fire is burning across the highway from where the 1979 Spanish Ranch burned 30 years ago today. The August 15, 1979 wildfire claimed the lives of four California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CALFIRE) firefighters who were working on an indirect fireline 40 miles east of Santa Maria, California. Those four firefighters were Captain Ed Marty, and firefighters Scott Cox, Ron Lorant and Steve Manley.
Joe Valencia wrote, Area Ignition, which is a book about the 1979 fire. Joe also put together a document on the Lessons Learned site that gives a brief summary of the incident.
Here is the cover page from Joe’s document.
The Spanish Ranch fire is one of the in our recently revised partial list, by date of the year, of some of the more famous, or infamous, multiple fatality wildland fires around the world over the last 150 years.
