Camas Creek Fire Entrapment Fatalities 1929

Two firefigters were entrapped and died on the Camas Creek Fire, Chelan National Forest (now the Okanogan-Wenatchee NF), Washington. Days before the fatal entrapment, Douglas Ingram (Pacific Northwest Regional Range Manager) had led his fire crew into a clearing to let the fire blow over them as they lay prone. “Ingram whittled and told stories while the fire raged on all sides of their little clearing and finally passed over, leaving the men unharmed.” On August 13, Ingram and young local firefighter Ernani St. Luise of the Chelan National Forest became entrapped together between McFarland and Squaw Creek, two miles from where they were last seen. Their bodies were discovered about two weeks later where they had been entrapped.

Entrapment, Fatality, Fire Behavior