Crime & Safety

ESPERANZA FIRE: Seven Years Later, Firefighters Remember Fallen Engine 57 Crew

Seven years after five firefighters were fatally injured in the explosive Esperanza Fire above Cabazon, a crewman who was among the first to reach his fallen comrades that morning brought flowers to a memorial before sunrise Saturday.

Forest Service Capt. Josh Richardson was so near the cauldron of flames that swept over the crew of Engine 57 on Oct. 26, 2006, a photo of him now appears on the cover of a book published earlier this year, "The Esperanza Fire: Arson, Murder and the Agony of Engine 57."

An arsonist set the fire in Cabazon before dawn that day, and just after 7 a.m. Santa Ana winds stoked flames 90 feet long moving up to 40 miles per hour, "which caused temperatures to exceed 1220 degrees Fahrenheit ahead of the fire front," according to Cal Fire.

This year on the anniversary of the deadliest day for firefighters in Riverside County history, Richardson and about a dozen other crewmen arrived before 7 a.m. Oct. 26.

They spent time quietly at a memorial below the property where Capt. Mark Loutzenhiser, 43, Pablo Cerda, 24, Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20, Jason Robert McKay, 27, and Jess Edward McLean, 27, were set up to protect a vacant home on Gorgonio View, between Cabazon and Twin Pines.

Engine 57 family members were expected to gather at the memorial later in the day, Richardson said.

The man accused of starting the Esperanza Fire, a mechanic with ties to Cabazon, Banning and Beaumont named Raymond Lee Oyler, was convicted in March 2009 of arson and five counts of murder. He's now on California's death row.

The mountainside above and below Gorgonio View was blackened by fire again this year, during the Silver Fire in August. The cause of that fire is still under investigation, according to Cal Fire.

Photo gallery from last year's Engine 57 remembrance:

Family, Loved Ones, Firefighters Recall USFS Engine 57 Crew on Red Flag Day

Video from seven years ago today:

Esperanza Fire Oct. 26 2006: Video by Guy McCarthy


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