Deadly Esperanza Wildfire: 10 Years Later, We Remember The 5 Brave Men We Lost

Ten years ago Wednesday, five U.S. Forest Service firefighters perished battling a monster wildfire near Idyllwild set by a serial arsonist who later was convicted and sentenced to death.

On Oct. 26, 2006, the crew of U.S.F.S. Engine 57 suffered ultimately fatal injuries while attempting to deploy around a house on a hillside north of Twin Pines to protect it from the Esperanza wildfire.

The catastrophic blaze consumed roughly 41,000 acres, destroying 34 homes and other buildings, as well as killing a large amount of livestock. The fire also damaged a highway before it was stopped four days later.

Capt. Mark Allen Loutzenhiser, 43, and firefighters Pablo Cerda, 24, Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20, Jason Robert McKay, 27, and Jess Edward McLean, 27, were victims of the conflagration, which was set by former Beaumont mechanic Raymond Lee Oyler.

In March 2009, Oyler, now 45, was convicted of five counts of first- degree murder and numerous counts of arson and possessing incendiary devices, stemming from two-dozen other fires he set in the months leading up to the Esperanza blaze.

A four-man, eight-woman jury recommended a death sentence following the penalty phase of the defendant's trial. Riverside County Superior Court Judge W. Charles Morgan stood by the recommendation.

According to testimony, the Esperanza fire was lit shortly after 1 a.m. on Oct. 26, 2006, near Esperanza Avenue and Almond Way in Cabazon. At its peak, the wildfire traveled at 30 miles per hour, with flames as high as 70 feet, burning at 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit.

PREVIOUS:

• ESPERANZA FIRE: Seven Years Later, Firefighters Remember Fallen Engine 57 Crew
• Arson-Set Esperanza Fire That Killed Engine 57 Crew Was 5 Years Ago Today
• UPDATE: 'Serial Arsonist' From Banning Accused of Starting June 28 Mill Fire, Eight Other Blazes

McKay, McLean and Hoover-Najera died within minutes of the fiery tidal wave crashing into them as they scrambled to set up defensive positions adjacent to a house with a pool from which the men intended to draw water.

Loutzenhiser clung to life for several hours after being transported off the hillside. Cerda was kept on life-support for five days before family members decided to take him off. He had burns to more than 90 percent of his body and his lungs and other organs had been singed.

Forest service officials are slated to hold an informal memorial ceremony at noon Wednesday at the site of the "burnover" that killed the firemen, at the end of Gorgonio View Road in Twin Pines.

Oyler's case is on appeal, and City News Service obtained a copy of the 450-page brief filed by his attorney, Michael Clough. It calls into question many links in the chain that culminated in Oyler's conviction, beginning with the competence of his attorney. Clough also assails the voluminous pretrial publicity, arguing that his client could never have received a "fair and impartial" hearing in Riverside County.

According to the defense, Oyler was improperly excluded from a key hearing in which Deputy District Attorney Michael Hestrin challenged the capability of defense attorney Mark McDonald to handle a capital case ahead of the trial. Clough also points to the midstream switch from the original jurist hearing the case, Jeffrey Prevost, to the man who ultimately presided over the trial, Morgan, as an example of placing Oyler at a disadvantage.

Clough refers to Hestrin as a "prosecutor with a mission," who introduced "irrelevant and highly prejudicial" evidence and testimony related to how the firefighters were killed in order to ratchet up emotionalism instead of sticking with the facts.

According to the attorney, there are numerous aspects of the case that deserve a second look, including the possibility of another arsonist behind most of the fires for which his client was convicted. The appeal is likely a year away from a hearing, Clough told CNS.

Oyler is one of roughly 700 prisoners on Death Row at San Quentin State Prison.

What made him do it?

"He was obsessed with fire and had just a fascination with starting a fire and watching it burn,” said Hestrin, now the county's district attorney. ``He wanted to burn down a mountain -- that's how he put it.”

–By PAUL J. YOUNG, City News Service / Patch file photo from the seventh anniversary of the Esperanza fire, by Guy McCarthy.