In the 10 years since an explosive Esperanza fire killed five U.S. Forest Service firefighters protecting an unoccupied home in the San Jacinto Mountains, wildland firefighting tactics, philosophies and organizational culture have changed, with agencies now strongly emphasizing valuing emergency workers’ lives over buildings.
Some of the new guidelines, officials say, are inevitable improvements in firefighting, the timing of which are coincidental. Others can be directly attributed to efforts to prevent a repeat of the doomed stand that the Engine 57 crew of Capt. Mark Loutzenhiser, Jess McLean, Jason McKay, Daniel Najera and Pablo Cerda made at the so-called Octagon House in Twin Pines overlooking the San Gorgonio Pass.