Incident Name: 7 acre brush and timber fire in Little Santa Anita Canyon, Angeles National Forest
Date: 6/19/1968, shortly after 1300 hours
Personnel: Alessand J. Biancalana
Age: 58
Agency/Organization: US Forest Service
Position: firefighter, dozer operator
Summary: Al Biancalana was clearing the overgrown brush on the closed Mt Wilson Toll Road for firefighting equipment. His small bulldozer went off the edge and plunged 200 feet. More than 100 firefighters were fighting the fire, keeping it small. Al Biancalana did not survive.
Maps
Little Santa Anita Canyon, Southeast of Mt Wilson
Best guess at location based on RJM’s research.
{mosmap lat=’34.212’|lon=’-118.0637’|marker=’0’|text=’Little Santa Anita Canyon’}
Reports, Documentation, Lessons Learned
- Forest Aid Dies Fighting Canyon BlazeJun 20, 1968 | pay-per-view
Al J. Biancalana, 58, of 6712 N. Golden West Ave;, Arcadia, was killed when his small bulldozer went off the old Mt. Wilson Toll Road and plunged 200 feet down
- California Death Index: Alessand J. Biancalana
- Wikipedia: Mt Wilson Toll Road
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- Al Biancalana, a 16 year Forest Service employee, was survived by a wife and two children.
Contributors to this article: Gerald Meehan, Rick Messier, RJM
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From RJM:
Some research led me to figure out that road now is essentially the 2N45
shown on the attached map. More of a wide trail than a real road.
Starts at the red gate symbol in the lower left and goes up to Mt. Wilson.
As you can see the Green is the forest the white is not actually NF lands.
What it was in 1966 is anyone’s guess. I would say it was a NF fire. He
was a USFS HFEO. Fire was in the “Little Santa Anita” Cyn. (see section 32
on the map) He could have been anywhere on the road. Likely working down,
though, as the canyon is closer to the road up high on the Mtns.
Screen shot you posted under Maps came from this interesting active map. (Loads slowly)
http://maps.fs.fed.us/stationfire/
This area is about 10 Miles South (and a little East) of our old friend
Rondtop. Again need more information to get a actual location, however you
could say 34.212, -118.0637 for now; a very nasty looking part of the trail right at
the top of the Little Santa Anita drainage.
RJM