San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Events that led to firefighter’s death
Volunteer firefighter Diana Jones died during the August Complex fires when a shift in afternoon winds turned the slowly progressing fire into a deadly inferno.
On the morning of Aug. 31, fire crews battling the August Complex fires in the Mendocino National Forest in Tehama County were instructed to set backfires along the 25N09 Road uphill from the Tatham Fire to “hold fire within the established control line” and decrease the chances of the fire escaping.
The day’s second firing operation called for crews to widen the controlled burn area on the downhill side of the dirt 25N09 Road to “slow the fire’s progression coming out of the South Fork, within the Elder Creek drainage.” Volunteer firefighter Diana Jones was on Engine 1, a truck assigned to monitor the backfires. A shift in the afternoon winds intensified the Tatham Fire as it came up the hill. Combined with a spot fire above the road and a flareup just below the road, Jones and her crew found themselves in an emergency situation.
To assist on the flareup, Engine 2 turned around and faced Engine 1. With exits in either direction of the road blocked and limited space to maneuver the engines to fight the growing fires, the commander ordered Engine 1 to get out of the area. The engine’s original driver ran to Engine 2 and told Jones, who got in the driver’s seat of Engine 1, to follow him.
Despite numerous warnings to stop, Jones backed up the engine. The vehicle toppled over the edge, falling 15 feet down the steep drainage ditch. The engine was then consumed by flames.