1955 — Sep 2, Hacienda wildfire, 5 Youths, Fire Cpt., arson brush fire, Puente Hills, CA–  6

–6  Find A Grave. “Victims of the 1955 Hacienda Fire in La Habra Heights.” Accessed 2-10-2020.

–6  Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA. “5 Boys, Captain Die Fighting Fire.” 9-3-1955, p. 1.

–6  Los Angeles County Fire Museum. Department History. “Memorial Wall.” 2015 update.

 

Narrative Information

 

Find A Grave: “On September 2, 1955, an explosive brush fire, known as the Hacienda Fire, swept 1150 acres in La Habra Heights, California. Captain Glenn Rockey of LACoFD Engine 4 was killed, while trying to rescue 5 juvenile members of LA County Probation Forestry Camp Crew 5-1. The 5 members of Crew 5-1 also succumbed to burn injuries. The fire also severely burned seven others. As a result of these deaths and the deaths on the Canyon Fire or Canyon Inn Fire in 1968, the Los Angeles County Fire Department re-evaluated and discontinued the practice of using juveniles to fight fire.”

 

Lists the full names of the victims as:

 

Franklin Clair Fay

Terry Martin Kelly

Glenn La Vern Pendergast

Glenn Eldon Rockey

Gregory Sambrano, Jr.

William Stanley Strock

 

(Find A Grave. “Victims of the 1955 Hacienda Fire in La Habra Heights.” Accessed 2-10-2020.)

 

Newspaper

 

Sep 3: “Six fire fighters, five of them boys recruited from a probation camp to combat an arsonist’s blaze, died in a brush fire 20 miles northeast of Long Beach Friday afternoon when wind-whipped flames trapped them. Six other boys and a county fireman were burned battling the flames that raced over 300 acres in the Puente Hills, near Whittier and La Habra.

 

“One of the dead was a county fire captain, trapped as he dragged a hose line down a steep slope in an effort to save the boys.

 

“It was the third fire at the scene in three days, and the County Fire Department’s investigators were convinced the blaze was deliberately set.

 

“The Dead:

 

LaVerne Pendergast, 17…San Pedro.

William Strock, 16, Baldwin Park.

Capt. Glenn Rockey, 45, Baldwin Park.

Terry Kelly, 17…Lynwood.

Franklin Fay, 16, San Dimas.

Gregory Sembano, 17, East Los Angeles….

 

“Quick shifting winds trapped Pendergast, Fay, Strock, Sembano and Kelley, fighting the fire in a group on a steep slope. As Capt. Rockey raced toward them with a hose, the fire fanned suddenly and engulfed him also.

 

“The winds tormented fire fighters on the slopes and in ravines all afternoon and into the night, but finally shifted to help the firemen save dozens of hillside homes.

 

“Burning dried-out brush, the flames erupted in a matter of minutes. Mrs. Rowena Swift and Dr. Henry Kurz, homeowners in the area, saw them first. Mrs. Swift said she smelled smoke, and then saw a small fire down the hill beside Hacienda Dr. ‘It was no bigger than a bushel,’ she recounted, ‘then it seemed to explode.’

 

“When the fire burst out a crew of teen-agers from Forestry Camp No. 5, operated by the County Probation Department near La Verne, was rushed to the scene. Under the direction of Capt. Rockey, 14 boys were dispatched to one of the fire fronts, along the bank of a slope. Their mission was to establish a containing line on a knoll about 150 feet from a group of houses. The treacherous wind suddenly whipped the flames in a new direction on the right flank of the fire fighters, then sent it racing up the knoll.

 

“Screaming, the youths clawed and scrambled up the steep bank. One group of six, among them

the five who died and one who was injured, never made the top, despite the heroic effort that cost Capt. Rockey his life.

 

“The fire raged nine hours before it was contained at 10 p. m. It was halted along a north-south fire break on the Uniak Ranch, paralleling Fullerton Rd. In all, the County Fire Department used 400 men to keep the fire in an uninhabited area. Several times flames threatened expensive homes. They burned a tool-house at one residence, two automobiles and a retaining wall at others. In one freakish spurt, the fire burned over a 60-foot space between two $30,000 homes without damaging either.

 

“Arson investigators sought to learn the identity of a ‘laughing man’ who visited the scene. He was reported by Mr. and Mrs. R. J. Sterling, of 2400 Panchoy Pl., whose home was among those barely missed by the fire. ‘He drove up in an old truck and stopped,’ Mrs. Sterling said. ‘Laughing, he said to us: ‘This sure is a good fire – men dead already. You have a wonderful view of it.’” (Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA. “5 Boys, Captain Die Fighting Fire.” 9-3-1955, p. 1)

 

Sources

 

Find A Grave. “Victims of the 1955 Hacienda Fire in La Habra Heights.” Accessed 2-10-2020 at: https://www.findagrave.com/virtual-cemetery/691567?page=1#sr-161134067

 

Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA. “5 Boys, Captain Die Fighting Fire.” 9-3-1955, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=45753675&sterm=

Los Angeles County Fire Museum. Department History. “Memorial Wall.” 2015 update. Accessed 2-10-2020 at: https://www.lacountyfiremuseum.com/memorial/