Incident Name: northern area of the Quail Creek Fire in Grants Pass, OR
Date: 7/15/70
Personnel: Luis Rodriguez of Nyssa, OR
Age: 32
Agency/Organization: Oregon Department of Forestry
Position: firefighter
Summary: While fighting fire on the Quail Creek Fire in Grants Pass, Luis Rodriguez was hit by a rolling snag and died. He was the crew boss for Snake River Valley #13 working a slop over when he observed a tree falling in the direction of two crew members. He ran and sacrificed his life to save his crew members (from the ODF memorial summary).
Maps
Near Grants Pass, Oregon is the only reference.
{mosmap lat=’42.439115’|lon=’-123.328382’|marker=’0’|text=’Grants Pass, OR’}
Reports, Documentation, Lessons Learned
- Luis Rodriguez named as fallen
- Oregon Death Index: Luis Flo Rodriguez
- US Social Security Death Index: Luis Rodriguez
- Snake River Valley Handcrews, Vale BLMThe Snake River Valley (SRV) firefighting program was developed at Vale, Oregon, by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The severe fire season of 1963 demonstrated a need for a well trained and organized firefighting force. Vale is the home of the Snake River Valley Fire Program, which for 47 years has produced one of the largest trained groups of Type II and type II-IA crews. In 1964, the BLM recognized the potential in the large population of Mexican-American farm laborers in the Snake River Valley of Western Idaho and Eastern Oregon. The formal structuring of the SRV program made it possible to utilize this tremendous work force, along with high school and college students looking for summer work, into a largely self sufficient organization of between 300 and 500 firefighters ready to respond to wild land fires or natural disasters anywhere in the United States. (more at the link…)
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- Oregon Department of Forestry: Memorial Database
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