Flames ambush man ‘who could do anything’

If anyone could be counted on to get you out of the woods alive, people said, it was Capt. Mark Loutzenhiser.

A longtime firefighter and avid outdoorsman, the 43-year-old Idyllwild man was leading a five-man U.S. Forest Service crew into the San Bernardino County wildfire Thursday when he and three of his men were killed. The other crew member was badly burned.

“He was a bright guy who could get you out of a tight spot,” said sister-in-law Sue Loutzenhiser. “We used to go camping. He could do anything. We camped in the snow, and he made sure you were warm.”

She said Loutzenhiser, who was married with five children, was an avid softball player and a lover of nature who frequently took his family on outdoor adventures. And he loved his job.

“He was kind of quiet about it, real humble. He never had an injury, never dreaded it,” she said. “The whole fire department is such a family in Idyllwild. They take care of each other’s children.”

Loutzenhiser led the Forest Service’s five-man crew of Engine 57, based out of the Alandale station in the San Bernardino National Forest, through the morning Thursday as they fought the spreading blaze.

About six hours into the shift, they found themselves near San Gorgonio View Road, north of Twin Pines off Highway 243, where they parked their engine and readied their hoses to defend homes, said Pat Boss, a Forest Service spokesman.

Without warning, flames shot up a hill from the south and overtook them about 8 a.m., Boss said, killing three of them at the scene. He said another Forest Service crew was watching and radioed for help but had no time to rescue the firefighters.

Loutzenhiser and another crew member, both suffering terrible burns, were taken by helicopter to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton. Loutzenhiser was pronounced dead within hours; the other remained in critical condition Thursday.

Three of the firefighters were full-time employees; two were seasonal.

The other six Forest Service crews in the Idyllwild area were temporarily pulled from the fire after the firefighters’ deaths, to give them a chance to collect themselves. They gathered at a local station, where they wept and prayed.

Idyllwild is a quiet town in the San Jacinto Mountains southwest of Palm Springs, with just two main roads in and out. Wildfires are an omnipresent fear, and the firefighting community is a tight one.

“They bicker a lot, they love each other a lot and they always protect each other,” Boss said.

Joe Neu, a good friend of Loutzenhiser’s, said he was considered one of the most experienced captains in the area. He said Loutzenhiser helped coach and organize youth teams in the area.

“It was an act of God that Mark died. He was such a good captain. If there was ever just a boy who was good and normal, it was Mark,” Neu said. “I was praying that Mark was one of the firefighters that survived, but I heard he didn’t make it during surgery.”

The other firefighters have not been identified.

Thursday, colleagues mourned Loutzenhiser, or “Lotzi,” as a dedicated career firefighter and devoted family man who was wonderful with children, both on the job and as a local volleyball coach, and handy with a chain saw when a friend’s downed trees needed cutting.

“He respected every fire he went out on -- he knew no two fires are the same,” Boss said. “He knew fire’s behavior, and he would never put his crew in danger in a fire situation. He was very adept at knowing what was going on.”

Boss, himself a veteran, said he often ran into Loutzenhiser and his crew at district headquarters. He said he last saw him about a week ago when he happened to run into him in Idyllwild. “He said he was just looking forward to wintertime because it had been a long summer fighting fires,” Boss said.

Paula Rumler, a waitress in town, said that when she heard a fire captain had fallen prey to the fire she worried for her son, Freddie Espinoza, a local fire department captain who was fighting the blaze.

She immediately called the station and found that her son was alive: “I said, ‘Freddie, are you OK?’ ” He said, “Mom, we came out without a scratch, but we’re not OK.”

Forest Service officials said the San Jacinto district had five chaplains providing grief counseling for firefighters and their families throughout the day.

“This is the darkest day ever for our district,” said Laurie Rosenthal, district ranger. “We’re all in shock. We’re going through the normal grieving process -- shock, denial, complete numbness.”

Rosenthal added: “These are just heroes. That’s the only word I can think of to describe someone who risks their life for other people and property. They live and breathe safety, but there’s noting in life that’s totally foolproof.”

In Idyllwild, as news of Loutzenhiser’s death sank in, people who had known him and his family for years tried to comprehend the scope of the loss. Marge Muir, a Realtor, recalled a time in the mid-1980s when Loutzenhiser’s father was spearheading an effort to create softball fields in town. At the time, she said, Loutzenhiser was an energetic, blond, blue-eyed youth “with a cheery smile that made you feel good just looking at him.”

Another Realtor, Emily Pearson, a 49-year resident, worked with Loutzenhiser’s mother, who was a cook at a downtown Idyllwild restaurant. She remembered that Loutzenhiser worked for her husband cutting trees.

“It’s so unfair that someone has the power to take away the lives of people who were trying to do good things,” she said.

Nearby, Cindy Allert, a resident of 40 years, sat in her Idyllwild beauty salon watching fire coverage on a portable TV. “We’re just stunned,” she said. “Mark and my boys went to school together at Idyllwild elementary.”

She shook her head, staring at the TV, and muttered: “Sadness. Immense sadness.”

At the Red Kettle, a popular gathering place in the town of 3,400, the talk was about the tragedy. Everyone there had crossed Loutzenhiser’s path at one time or another. Waitress Pat Allen was tending the cash register when a customer told her what had happened.

“I had a restaurant full of customers and evacuees, so I couldn’t lose control,” Allen said. “I had to keep it together and pour coffee and serve breakfast. But I couldn’t stop wondering, there goes one of our heroes. Who’s going to take care of us now?”

Throughout his life, photographs of Loutzenhiser swinging a bat, playing volleyball or kicking a kickball frequently appeared in the Idyllwild Town Crier, the town’s newspaper. Publisher Becky Clark said that there were already plans Thursday afternoon to raise funds for the families of the firefighters who lost their lives.

“Word of the tragedy moved like this through the town this morning,” she said, snapping her fingers in rapid succession.

“It’s a damn heartbreak for this community. We’re pretty tightknit up here. Maria and her kids will be smothered with love.”

christopher.goffard@

latimes.com

ashley.powers@latimes.com

louis sahagun@latimes.com