It's with deep regret that we pass on from the Los Angeles Fire Department that a City of Los Angeles Fire Captain has died while on duty.
Early this morning, Los Angeles Firefighters discovered on-duty Fire Captain/Paramedic Matthew G. McKnight unresponsive after his unwitnessed collapse inside the LAFD Metropolitan Fire Communications Center. Captain McKnight, age 51 - and a 31 year veteran of the LAFD, was last seen at 0055 hours near the conclusion of a busy five hour watch, where he directly supervised eleven Firefighter/Dispatchers. Despite an exhaustive effort by colleagues who immediately performed CPR, applied a defibrillator and instituted advanced life support measures, Captain McKnight proved beyond medical help and was declared dead Monday morning at the Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center.
Captain McKnight, a resident of Thousand Oaks, California is survived by his wife, teenage daughter and pre-teen son, as well as two brothers who are active-duty members of the LAFD. Thanks to LAFD's BrianH for the details. Our condolences to all affected. RIP.
Name: Matthew G. McKnight
Rank: Fire Captain/Paramedic
Age: 51
Gender: MaleStatus: CareerYears of Service: 31
Date of Incident: 08/12/2013
Time of Incident: 0055hrs
Date of Death: 08/12/2013
Fire Department: Los Angeles Fire Department
Address: 200 North Main Street, 18th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90012 Fire Department Chief: Brian Cummings
Incident Description: Fire Captain/Paramedic McKnight was found unresponsive while on duty at the LAFD Metropolitan Fire Communications Center. Although immediately treated by colleagues who performed CPR, applied a defibrillator and instituted advanced life support measures, Captain McKnight was pronounced deceased at a nearby medical center a short time later. The nature of the fatal injury is yet to be determined.
Incident Location: Metro Fire Communications (MFC), 500 E Temple Street, Los Angeles, CA
It is with great sadness that we inform you of a firefighter fatality that occurred this morning at approximately 7:20 a.m. on the Big Windy Complex. The firefighter, 19 year old Jesse Trader, was returning from the evening shift when the water tender he was driving hit the embankment and rolled over on the Bear Camp Road near Soldier Camp. Firefighters in vehicles driving behind Jesse immediately stopped to assist. An advanced life support ambulance arrived on scene within minutes and life flight was quickly launched; however, all efforts to save Jesse were unsuccessful.
The loss of Jesse affects many people in so many ways. From the immediate suffering experienced by Jesse’s family and loved ones, to his close friends and the local communities who know and love him, to the firefighters who were the first responders, as well as the larger firefighting community; we are grieving for our fallen comrade. Please keep Jesse’s family in your thoughts and prayers during this very difficult time.
An accident investigation team from Josephine County and cooperating law enforcement agencies arrived on scene shortly after the accident. Josephine County Sheriff’s Office is the lead agency for public notifications. All agencies associated with the Big Windy Complex will be assisting and cooperating in all manners possible regarding this tragedy while continuing with the suppression work on the Big Windy Complex.
We regret to advise you that around 0830 yesterday, 19-year-old Jesse Trader was killed Tuesday morning while working the Big Windy Complex Fire about 25 miles northwest of Grants Pass in Josephine County Oregon. Initial reports are that he lost control of the water tender/tanker vehicle he was driving, down a hill, lost control and went over the edge of a cliff. Rescue medics arrived within minutes but he could not be saved.
Jessie was a contractor FF was operating in the area of the big windy complex fire (one of five major forest fires in the region) was killed in the Line of Duty in a truck crash
Sheriff Gil Gilbertson says Trader was driving a water truck around 7:20 a.m. along Bear Camp Road near Soldier Camp when he lost control and slammed into an embankment. Gibertson estimates he might have been going 30 to 40 mph at the time of the accident. Life Flight got to him right away but it was too late. Trader was coming off his overnight shift.
He was a 2012 graduate of West Albany High School.
The southwestern fires were ignited by lightning late last month. They are burning in some of the state's most difficult mountain terrain, fed by vegetation parched by a widespread drought.
Our condolences to all-RIP Related story:
Water Truck Driver Killed During Oregon Wildfire
Driver was returning truck used at Big Windy fires when crash occurredPORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The death of a 19-year-old water truck driver outside a rural Oregon wildfire came just months after he joined a community college firefighter training program and readied for his first fire season.
Jesse Trader had a baseball scholarship to Western Oregon University but chose to enroll at Chemeketa Community College for its fire protection program instead, his mother said Tuesday.
"This is what Jesse wanted to do with his life," said Gigi Trader, of Albany.
Jesse Trader was killed when his water truck overturned on a rural road's embankment early Tuesday morning outside the Big Windy complex of fires in southwest Oregon. Trader was taken from the scene by an air ambulance, but emergency responders were unable to revive him.
He was the sole occupant of the truck.
Gov. John Kitzhaber said in a prepared statement that Oregon owes Trader a debt.
"Even at such a young age, he was already contributing mightily to his community," Kitzhaber said, "and we owe him our gratitude for his commitment to helping protect his fellow citizens."
Trader's mother said his faith, and hers, helped her cope with the reality of his death just hours after getting a call from law enforcement.
"He was always willing to share his faith with others, he never got in any trouble," Gigi Trader said. "He was somebody who was going to be very successful."
Josephine County Sheriff Gil Gilbertson said it was unclear from the crash site why the truck left the road and overturned. "He was coming down the hill," Gilbertson said. "(The truck) was heading down to get a relief driver."
Trader was the second crew member killed this wildfire season in Oregon, and the 29th nationally.
On Aug. 1, 58-year-old John Hammack was killed in Central Oregon when the tree he was cutting fell on him.
The southwestern fires were ignited by lightning late last month. They are burning in some of the state's most difficult mountain terrain, fed by vegetation parched by a widespread drought.
The Big Windy's three fires are burning northwest of Grants Pass. More than 1,100 personnel were assigned to it as of Tuesday morning, and the fire area is estimated at more than 14 square miles, or more than 9,100 acres.
Fire officials hope to have containment lines around it next month but some say it could grow much larger and burn until fall rains and snow put it out.
"We're going to live with these fires until October 15th or later," Dan Thorpe, forester in charge of the state Department of Forestry's southwest district who has seen 41 fire seasons, said in an interview published Tuesday in the Medford Mail Tribune (http://bit.ly/12Y3I1Q ).
The fire is in the Siskiyous, a range that's part of the Klamath Mountains straddling southwest Oregon and Northern California.
There are six major wildfires in Oregon as of Tuesday. One of the southwestern fires, named Brimstone, is now considered 100 percent contained. The rest of the southwestern fires are burning on nearly 60,000 acres, or more than 93 square miles, and have drawn more than 5,600 people to fight them.
The sixth fire, in Central Oregon, has about 450 people working on the fire and is burning on about 500 acres.
Associated Press writer Tim Fought contributed to this report.
Here, in a box canyon about 65 miles northwest of Phoenix, the Granite Mountain Hotshots realized that flames had trapped them.
Here, in a tangle of scrub oak, bear grass and agave, they tried to escape beneath emergency blankets.
Here, within view of the community, the heat and smoke became too much. A firestorm melted protective shelters, cracked granite boulders and incinerated every living thing.
During a tour Tuesday of the Yarnell Hill Fire fatality scene, the first public viewing since the June 30 tragedy, authorities offered new revelations about how the Prescott, Ariz.-based crew became trapped.
They said questions about key safety protocols were irrelevant because the hotshots had been changing locations, rather than attacking the wildfire, when they were overcome. Thus, the men had no lookout, no planned escape route or safety zone.
But beyond details of what may have happened and why, this hallowed ground is a place of pain and honor, planned as a future memorial.
"The horror is incredible," Jerry Payne, Arizona's deputy state forester, said as another firefighter knelt beside a hotshot's shirt draped over the charred remains of a prickly-pear cactus.
"I'm sickened. And I'm saddened for 10 widows," said Darrell Willis, division chief with the Prescott Fire Department. "I don't want them to have died in vain."
Jim Paxon, a spokesman for the Arizona State Forestry Division, shook his head slowly.
"There are a number of whys and whats and what-ifs that you just have to realize we cannot answer," he said. "Those answers died with the crew."
Nevertheless, authorities offered the first clear, public account of what they believe transpired that Sunday. They said the Granite Mountain Hotshots had been cutting fire lines along a ridge more than a mile to the north, attempting to flank a relatively calm blaze, when winds picked up.
The crew's spotter, Brendan McDonough, was forced to leave his lookout post and use an escape route, joining the nearby Blue Ridge Hotshots before reaching safety in Yarnell.
Meanwhile, the Granite Mountain team led by Eric Marsh, a veteran superintendent, abandoned efforts to cut a fire line and climbed along a ridge road to a point where Yarnell was visible to the east. Willis and Payne said the hotshots at that point could have safely hiked to an area that the fire previously blackened, but instead began descending a saddle into what would become the valley of death.
Although weather alerts had been issued and received, Willis said he is convinced that the men were not yet scrambling for safety. Instead, he believes they were moving down to save a ranch house and other buildings at the base of the bowl-shaped valley. The fire, contained July 12, damaged or destroyed at least 115 structures in Yarnell and Glen Ilah about a mile away in the two weeks since lightning sparked it June 28.
"Their goal is life and property — to protect that," Willis said. "There's a lot of talk about risk management. (But) the job of wildland firefighting is inherently dangerous. ... It was a judgment that they made."
As the men struggled down a steep, chaparral-choked slope — probably around 4 p.m. MST — prevailing winds kicked up and reversed direction. A thunderstorm generated severe gusts. The fire's flank became its head. Flames surged 4 miles in just 20 minutes.
The hotshots had no lookout at that point, and they could not see the blowup because surrounding hills obstructed the view.
Willis and Payne said they believe flames hooked around the men via nearby canyons while sky-borne embers were blown overhead and to the east, igniting spot fires. In a matter of minutes, their only escape was cut off. The men faced a wall of flame moving at 12 mph.
"This was the most extreme fire behavior I'd ever witnessed," Willis said. "They had fire on both sides of them. They had fire behind them. And they had fire ahead of them."
Payne and Willis said evidence shows the men began cutting brush and small trees with chain saws, trying to create a safe clearing for themselves. In a radio transmission, they announced plans to set a backfire — a defensive blaze that would be sucked toward the main fire, creating a buffer of safety.
Then came a final communication: Hotshots were deploying emergency shelters.
Willis, who helped found the nation's only municipal hotshot team, said the Granite Mountain members fought and died as one.
"The voice of what actually happened, we'll never know," he said. "I can tell you they died with honor. They stuck together."
The bodies were found in a slight swale amid a scattering of blackened stones and charred plants — an area now surrounded with fence.
Willis rejected any second-guessing about decisions or safety procedures. As wildfires evolve, he said hotshots adjust their locations and tactics. It is not unusual during those transitions to move without a lookout, and it is impossible to have established escape routes or safety zones.
"I would have gone with that crew blindfolded," Willis said. "It's a risky business, but they don't take undue risks. You can call it an accident. I just think God had a different plan for those men."
An investigative team is expected to complete a detailed report on the fire fatalities in late August or early September.
In the meantime, Payne said, "The hardest part about all of this for me is what can we learn? Can we help other firefighters in the future?"
During Tuesday's tour, wildfire officials distributed an open letter that Marsh, the superintendent, had written about the Granite Mountain Hotshots before his death:
"We are positive people," he wrote. "We take a lot of pride in being friendly and working together.
"To our families and friends, we're crazy. Why do we want to be away from home so much, work such long hours, risk our lives and sleep on the ground 100 nights a year? Simply, it's the most fulfilling thing any of us have ever done."
The letter closes by noting that hotshots are husbands, fathers and boyfriends:
"We are not nameless or faceless. We are not expendable. We are not satisfied with mediocrity. We are not willing to accept being average. We are not quitters."
Dennis Wagner also reports for The Arizona Republic.
Collecting evidence
Forensic experts have been asked to examine the cellphones of several of the Granite Mountain Hotshots to determine if they contain photographs or other evidence relevant to the death investigation.
A report that the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office released Tuesday said investigators recovered the phones, other evidence and firefighting equipment from the scene the morning after the 19 firefighters died.
The phones, most of them badly damaged, were turned over to the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center, a coalition of law-enforcement agencies. The phones were to be disassembled to determine if any data could be retrieved.
The report detailed meticulous steps taken to protect the firefighters' bodies until they could be moved to Phoenix for autopsies the next day and the efforts to preserve and collect evidence for use in reconstructing how and why the men died.
Among other things, the report noted that "all or most of the shelters appeared to have been deployed," but that some men were found outside shelters. It is likely that the violent firestorm tore some shelters from their occupants.
A Phoenix Fire Department chaplain said prayers over each of the fallen firefighters as their bodies were carried away from the scene in pairs to waiting medical examiners' vans, according to the report.
"Throughout the process all the remains of the firefighters were treated professionally, and with the care, dignity and honor that each of these heroes deserved," it said.
Downey Firemen's Association, Local 3473 is saddened to announce the loss of one of their own in the line of duty.
Downey Battalion Chief Brian Wolfunexpectedly passed away at home on July 21, 2013 while on vacation spending time with his family.
Brother Wolf, 44, grew up in Downey and began his career in the fire service as a Downey Fire Explorer, before being hired on full-time in 1989.
Brian was one who never quit anything or turned and ran when there was a fight. He worked hard and trained hard. Brain was diagnosed with a job related cancer a short time ago.
He is survived by his wife, April, and their two children, daughter McKenzie and son Logan.
Memorial Services
Memorial services are pending. Please bookmark this page and check back for updated information.
Condolences
Card's and letters of condolence can be sent to:
Downey Fire Station 1 Attn: The Wolf Family 12222 Paramount Blvd. Downey, Ca. 90242
Questions/further information, please contact Downey L3473 Director Dan Rasmusen atdanras79@gmail.com
Grant McKee 21, and Robert Caldwell, 23, were among the 19 Prescott, AZ. who lost their lives June 30th battling the Yarnell Hill Fire.
Grant and Robert were cousins who worked ... and died ... together on the front lines. Both will be honored on Saturday, July 20, 2013 at 11:00am.
URGENT HONOR GUARD CALL: PLEASE SEE INFORMATION BELOW FOR RSVP AND PRACTICE
Grant was training to be an emergency medical technician and also worked alongside his cousin, fellow Hotshot, 23 Robert Caldwell. Robert was with the Hotshots for two years and leaves behind his wife and stepson. Grant was newly engaged.
The California Fire Foundation has joined with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation to provide comprehensive local assistance when a firefighter falls in the line of duty.
Honor Guard Call
All departmental and local union honor guards are invited to participate in the Saturday ceremony.
PLEASE RSVP AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO CAL LAST IC Thomas Jay, Cell Phone: 951-515-2194; Email: socal_last@cpf.org.
Mandatory Honor Guard Practice: Two mandatory practices will be held. The first practice will be held Friday, July 19, 2013 at 1pm (1300 hours) and the second practice will be held Saturday, July 20, 2013 at 8am. Both practices will be at the St Andrews Presbyterian Church (600 St Andrews Rd., Newport Beach, CA).
Honor Guard personnel are to bring Class A uniforms to change into and bring all of your flags, poles, harnesses, tools and pike poles. Please try to make the practice, to make the ceremony special for the families.
Uniformed Personnel
All uniformed personnel are invited to participate in the ceremony and uniformed firefighter procession. Class A uniforms requested.
Briefing for the uniformed firefighter procession will be at 10:30am at St Andrews Presbyterian Church (600 St Andrews Rd., Newport Beach, CA).
Please RSVP ASAP to Rob Gagne with Costa Mesa Firefighters --rgagne@cmfd.com; (949) 355-8085. Please indicate a head count and advise if you are sending apparatus.
It's requested that you RSVP by tomorrow (Thursday) at noon.
Apparatus Procession
Departments bringing apparatus are asked to RSVP ASAP to Rob Gagne with Costa Mesa Firefighters -- rgagne@cmfd.com; (949) 355-8085
All apparatus should be at the staging area by 9:30am at Harbor Lawn Memorial Park& Mortuary: 1625 Gisler Ave., Costa Mesa, CA
FIRE CHIEF DARYL L. OSBY 1320 N. Eastern Avenue Los Angeles, CA90063
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: LACoFD Public Affairs (323) 881-2411
L.A.CountySheriff’s Department Holding 24-Hour Vigil
at LA County Fire Station 23 in Bellflower
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) is holding a 24-hour vigil at L.A. County Fire Department (LACoFD) Fire Station 23 in Bellflower. The vigil is being held in honor of fallen Granite Mountain Hotshots crew member Kevin Woyjeck. Kevin Woyjeck is the son of LACoFD Fire Captain Joe Woyjeck, who is a veteran of LACoFD for more than 30 years and who is the Vice President of the Los Angeles County Fire Museum in Bellflower. The vigil began this morning and will continue until tomorrow morning.
WHO: Los AngelesCounty Sheriff’s Department deputies.
WHAT: A 24-hour watch vigil with deputies replaced every hour.elos; LA CiAnimal Animal Control,,, LAC
WHEN: Monday, July 15, 2013.
WHERE:Los AngelesCounty Fire Department
Fire Station 23
9548 E. Flower Street
Bellflower, CA
VISUALS: Sheriff’s deputies will stand outside the doors to Fire Station 23 in a show of force and unity, protecting the fire station as crews attend the funeral services for Kevin Woyjeck.
Grant McKee 21, and Robert Caldwell, 23, were among the 19 Prescott, AZ. who lost their lives June 30th battling the Yarnell Hill Fire.
