Incident Name: Recer Fire, Mendocino National Forest, during IA
Date: incident date: 8/13/90; death date: 8/14/90, 1005 hrs
Personnel: Kenneth Earl Enslow
Age: 20
Agency/Organization: CDF (now CALFIRE)
Position: first year firefighter
Summary: Kenneth Enslow was a first year Firefighter I with CDF. He was employed at the Home Gardens Schedule A Station in Riverside County and was part of an engine crew dispatched to fight the Recer Fire. CDF Firefighter Enslow was killed by a falling snag on the Recer Fire which burned on the Mendocino NF. It was his first wildland timber fire and he may not have had the experience to recognize or appreciate the danger from falling trees despite being warned. He was wearing his hardhat. He was struck on August 13 and died the next morning, August 14, 1990 in a Chico hospital.
Maps
Enloe Hospital, Chico CA
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Recer Fire Location and Perimeter
Reports, Documentation, Lessons Learned
- CDF: Recer Fire Green Sheet (390 K pdf)
- CDF (now CAL FIRE): Recer Fire Report (1302 K pdf)
- Kenneth’s name and death date are included in the USFA Firefighter Fatality Retrospective Study, published April 2002 (2,888 K pdf)
- California Death Index: Kenneth Earl Enslow
Return to top
Wildlandfire.com Links:
- Theysaid: 11/21/10 and scroll up
Media Articles and Reports
- Ken Enslow named as fallen.
Photos, Videos, & Tributes
- From “Retired”: The artist that made the sculpture of firefighters on the capital mall in Sacramento used Kenneth Enslow as the model for the one of the firefighters in the statue.
- USFA Memorial Database: Kenneth Enslow
- Sacramento CAL FIRE Fallen Firefighter Memorial
- California Memorial Firefighter Wall in Sacramento, CA: California Memorial LODDs by Wall Order. (84 K pdf) –see page 18
Contributors to this article: Retired; Judy Brazzi Bungarz, Retired Center Manager, Mendocino National Forest; Fire Chief John R. Hawkins, CAL FIRE, Riverside County Fire Department
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