The Rattlesnake Fire was a

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

started by an

arsonist Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wate ...

on July 9, 1953, in Grindstone Canyon on the

Mendocino National Forest The Mendocino National Forest is located in the Coastal Mountain Range in northwestern California and comprises 913,306 acres (3,696 km2). It is the only national forest in the state of California without a major paved road entering it ...

in northern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The wildfire killed one Forest Service employee and 14

volunteer firefighters A volunteer fire department (VFD) is a fire department of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained (on-call) firefighters are expected to be on call to respond t ...

from the

New Tribes Mission Ethnos360, formerly known as New Tribes Mission (NTM), is an international, theologically evangelical Christian mission organization based in Sanford, Florida, United States. Ethnos360 has approximately 2,300 missionaries in more than 20 nation ...

, and burned over before it was controlled on July 11, 1953. It became and remains to this day a well-known

firefighting Firefighting is the act of extinguishing or preventing the spread of unwanted fires from threatening human lives and destroying property and the environment. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter. Firefighters typically ...

textbook case on fatal wildland fires.

Events

The arsonist, Stanford Pattan, started two

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...

s, one on private land and the other along Alder Springs Road inside the national forest boundary. He was later convicted and sentenced on two counts of arson. The first fire was quickly suppressed by responding firefighters. The second fire continued burning uphill in what is known as Rattlesnake Canyon; it was reported mid-afternoon and numerous fire crews responded -- from the Forest Service and the state, along with a pick-up crew hired from the New Tribes Mission at Fouts Springs. By late evening the fire was nearing containment. At about 9 p.m., however, as detailed in John N. Maclean's 2018 book ''River of Fire'', the wind picked up, reversed direction, and poured downhill.

Casualties

Fifteen firefighters were burned to death as they tried to outrun the fire through the dense chaparral.

Aftermath

As a consequence of the fire, there were major changes to wildland fire training, firefighting safety standards, and overall awareness of how weather affects fire behavior.
Mendocino NF webpage on the Rattlesnake Fire The 1953 Rattlesnake Fire was one of the incidents that culminated in the 195
Report to the Chief
(the Report of the Task Force to Recommend Action to Reduce the Chances of Men Being Killed by Burning While Fighting Fire).

Footnotes

References

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External links

(Monday, Jul. 20, 1953 issue) (Paywall)
Rattlesnake Fire Memorial & Interpretive Site
(with photos)
JohnMacleanBooks.com
(author website)
River of Fire: The Rattlesnake Fire and the Mission Boys
(2018 book by John Maclean) {{California wildfires by deaths Wildfires in Glenn County, California 1953 fires in the United States 1953 in California 1950s wildfires in the United States Mendocino National Forest 1953 crimes in the United States 1953 natural disasters in the United States Mass murder in 1953 California wildfires caused by arson