This 50' aerial view shows the site of the Rattlesnake Fire west of Willows, California.  The fire was an arson-caused wildfire in this area on the afternoon of July 9, 1953.  The arsonist, Stan Patton, had started two fires after throwing a match at each location out of his green buick.  The second fire, the Rattlesnake Fire, would claim the lives of 15 firefighters & one US forest service worker & today remains a well-known firefighting textbook case on fatal wildland fires.  More info below:

On July 9, 1953, California Department of Forestry and Forest Service resources had contained the 11 acre Chrome Fire just prior to the Rattlesnake Fire being reported. While returning from the Chrome Fire, Forest Patrolman Archie Millar came across the Rattlesnake Fire. He estimated the fire at a quarter acre and burning in thick brush. Initial attack was abandoned soon after due to the fire behavior and a wall of thick brush. About this time Charlie Lafferty, the District Fire Control Officer, arrived and directed the initial attack engines to move up Alder Springs Road to the head of the fire at Powder House Turn. Soon Fire Boss Jack Ewing arrived as well as Forest Supervisor Leon Thomas. Ewing was assigned as Fire Boss and Lafferty as Line Boss. The three of them developed a plan to “box” in the fire and these control actions were successful for the remainder of the day. Work was progressing smoothly and at one point Line Boss Lafferty felt they would have the fire contained in few hours. There were California Department of Forestry and Forest Service engines, local loggers, local dozers, and a hand crew from the New Tribes Mission on the fire. The engine crews firing operation from the point of origin going up Alder Springs Road moved smoothly until 20:00 when they reached an in-turn drainage. Here a fire whirl developed and threw several spot fires across Alder Springs Road on the downhill side. The firing was stopped at this point, and these spots were successfully contained. At 20:15, Forest Supervisor Thomas was on Alder Springs Road, and saw a small spot fire directly across the canyon and on the other side of Powder House Creek. Thomas walked to the spot fire around 20:30, it was very low intensity and he felt it would run north to the top of Powder House Ridge where they would make an attack. As the diurnal winds subsided, the fire laid down and a dozer line was constructed from Powder House Turn up Powder House Ridge to contain the spot fire. At 21:00, after consultation with Thomas, Line Boss Lafferty decided on direct attack for the spot fire and to staff it with the 23-man New Tribes Mission Crew. He sent them down into the now titled Missionary Spot Fire from Powder House Turn. They reached the spot fire and constructed a direct line around it containing it to a half acre. Shortly after the crew had left the road, lunches arrived at Powder House Turn. Bob Powers, a Forest Service employee based at Alder Springs, informed Lafferty the New Tribes Mission Crew had not eaten all day and he volunteered to take the lunches down to the crew. Lafferty agreed and Powers left at 21:45. He joined up with the crew and they sat down in a small drainage at the bottom of the spot fire to eat. Powers and Stanley Vote, the New Tribes Mission Crew Boss, walked up to a spur ridge to assess the fire behavior from the burning operation. They did not see anything that caused them alarm. They returned to the crew. At this time, the Missionary Spot Fire was the only spot outside the control box, and it was lined and smoldering. As they were eating, the firing operation from High Point to Powder House Turn continued. At 22:00 a strong westerly wind surfaced, channeling through a saddle and overriding the local diurnal winds. This caused the fire from the firing operation to transition from a backing fire to a running head fire moving downhill towards Alder Springs Road. Numerous spot fires were transported over Alder Springs Road down into intersecting drainages in Powder House Creek. Engine crews attempted to control to the spot fires but had to abandon their effort due to the fire behavior and distance downhill to reach the spots. One of these spot fires made a significant run upslope to the north towards Powder House Ridge and Powder House Turn. Lafferty realized this would cut off the escape route for the New Tribes Mission Crew, he ran through the brush to yell a warning. The crew started out, moving in two groups both moving straight uphill towards Lafferty and the dozer line. When Lafferty realized the lower group would not make it to the ridge he yelled to “head downhill” to get under the uphill fire run. The first group of nine crewmembers arrived at the ridgetop and survived. As the second group of 15, including Bob Powers, headed downhill to escape the fire, the full power of the gradient Sundowner wind surfaced. This overrode the local winds and turned the head fire, which was running north, 90 degrees to the east where it overran the 15 firefighters in the second group. All 15 perished. The Rattlesnake Fire was controlled two days later, on July 11 at 12:00 acres. Charley Lafferty was troubled by this fire for the rest of his life. He felt he caused the 15 fatalities by telling them to go downhill. After the investigation interviews were finished, he refused to publicly talk about the Rattlesnake Fire for the rest of his life. He shouldered this burden even though there were many causal factors that contributed to the accident. Fire Boss Jack Ewing was also the Fire Boss ten years earlier on the 1943 Hauser Creek Fire. Eleven US Marines were overrun by fire and perished. He was held partially accountable for the fatalities for assigning an inexperienced Line Boss to supervise fire operations and not checking back on progress.

Today a short trail leads one to each cross where the firefighters died.  Across the way is a pullout with an information kiosk relating to the event.  Coincidentally at the kiosk I bumped into three firefighters who were stationed out of Lake County just to the south, out on a side hike to analyze this particular case.

From: https://wffoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Rattlesnake-Final.pdf 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rattlesnake_Fire