Fire Captain

Department of Forestry and Fire Protection

11/2/1993

Special Act Award (Gold)

On November 2, 1993, Fire Captains Harold T. Mansur and Robert V. Martinez performed extraordinary acts of heroism at great personal risk to their own safety and lives. They initiated and helped 12 inmate/fire crew firefighters in the rescue of seven civilians trapped on a 200-foot-high ledge with a major fire descending upon them. On the Pacific Coast Highway at Malibu, at approximately 4:45 pm, a police officer with a megaphone told the victims to come off the hill even if they had to slide down. Only one young woman started down until her footing got too unsure and she froze. The others didn't try and appeared to be in a state of panic. Fire Captains Mansur and Martinez decided the only way to rescue these people would be to use a chair-formation rescue with a belay (secure a rope on a rock) procedure. FC Mansur grabbed a 100 foot rope and he and his lead inmate started up the hill. FC Mansur found no place to tie the rope so he tied it around his own waist, dug in and leaned back into the hill to establish the rope line. FC Martinez sent three inmates up after the young woman. Martinez then organized eight other inmates into a human chair to bring the victims down one at a time while he served as a lookout about 50 feet up the slope. When they got the young woman to the rope line and told her to slide down, she froze, and an inmate wrapped his arms around her and carried her down. When the other victims started down and the flames were getting very close, FC Mansur yelled to the inmates on top, “Get out now! There's no more time!" One of the crew turned to Mansur and framed in flames, held up one finger and yelled back, "There's one more." A developmentally disabled young man was found cowering under a burning bush and had to be wrestled away. Meanwhile, too many people below FC Mansur had grabbed the rope and it pulled him loose. A couple of those below Mansur grabbed and held the rope until he regained his footing. With flames no more than three to five feet behind them and spotting all around them, Fire Captains Mansur and Martinez made sure all personnel were going down and then joined them in sliding and tumbling to the highway. As soon as their boots hit the pavement, the whole slope on which they had just been negotiating ignited with 100-foot flames.