Families, firefighters mark 10 year anniversary of Esperanza Fire

Families, friends and fellow firefighters gathered at the Octagon house Wednesday to mark the 10 year anniversary of Esperanza Fire that claimed the lives of five Forest Service firefighters. Jason McKay, Jess McLean, Daniel Hoover-Najera, Mark Loutzenhiser, and Pablo Cerda were the firefighters that were trying to save the Octagon house from the blaze that day.

Those attending gathered at the memorial on the site for a moment of silence remembering the sacrifice of the fallen firefighters. Afterwards, a BBQ was held in order for everyone to catch up with each other.

For Whitney Heath, the girlfriend of Hoover-Najera, it was an opportunity to bring back some memories.

“He was an amazing person,” she said. “He was so kind and loved to help people and an incredible human being.”

Heath said she had not been back to the house since 2007 and said it was difficult to come back but felt it was time. She said during that time she had to endure the trial of the arsonist convicted of starting the fire. Raymond Lee Oyler was convicted and sentenced to death for starting the fire that killed the crew of Engine 57. Oyler is still sitting on death row in the middle of his appeal process.

“The trial reopened a lot of wounds,” she said. “I re-lived it. It’s been very painful. But I’m finally back to re-face it.”

For Greg Koeller, the owner of the Octagon house, he wanted to do his part in honoring the firefighter’s sacrifice. He has turned the property into a memorial for those five men and wants to continue adding to it.

“People leave mementos behind,” he said. “They don’t do any good in my garage so we figure with the display case, I can put all of the mementos in the display case if the Forest Service has any information they want to put in there they can.”

Heath said the gathering a step forward in the healing process even if she will never fully recover from her loss.

“Reconnecting with the families I think is really good to have the support from everybody,” she said. “I don’t think I will ever get closure but I do think that it makes it a little bit easier knowing that there are other people going through the same thing.”