Officials Investigating Fatal Fire : Emergencies: Questions center on experience of crew and weather and safety conditions. ‘It was a safe operation,’ county inspector says.

Three agencies are investigating the cause of a fast-moving brush fire that left two firefighters dead and two critically injured after the men became trapped in a rugged Altadena canyon, county fire officials said Saturday.

Inspectors from the County Fire Department and U.S. Forest Service are expected to release a report on the Friday accident in three to 10 days, said Assistant Fire Chief Gary Nelson. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is also investigating.

One firefighter critically injured in the blaze graduated from the Fire Academy less than a month ago, and according to county fire officials, the eight fire-suppression aides from the county’s Crew Camp Two in La Canada-Flintridge were not working with their regular supervisor.

County Fire Inspector Devin Trone said the camp crew foreman, who decided where helicopters should drop off his eight-man crew, was filling in for the day on an overtime shift.

The supervisor, who Trone would not identify, is normally assigned to a county engine company, not a camp crew, which handles brush fires on a regular basis.

But Trone said the foreman was adequately schooled in fighting brush fires.

“Everybody’s pretty versatile. He was qualified,” Trone said. “It was a safe operation. They had an escape plan. Everything was working good, until the time of the accident.”

Trone said the investigation will focus on the safety of the equipment, fuel conditions and weather conditions.

“There will be nothing left unturned,” he said.

All eight members of the fire crew were dropped by helicopter onto a hillside above the fire and directed to cut a firebreak with hand tools. One of the issues to be examined by investigators is whether the men were dropped at an inappropriate place, said county Fire Inspector Joel Harrison.

Fires move much more rapidly uphill than downhill, he said, but cutting a break line below the fire presents hazards as well.

“Certainly cutting a line above the fire has the potential for being more dangerous than cutting one below it,” Harrison said. “But any time you’re cutting fire line, it’s dangerous. If you cut the line below, burning objects can roll across the line and start a fire below you.”

The men who were killed and injured reportedly failed to use their protective fire shelters, while the four uninjured men used theirs.

The fire, near East Glenallen Lane and Loma Alta Drive, was reported at 3:12 p.m. and the injuries occurred just over an hour later, said county Fire Inspector Mark Savage. The blaze was sparked when the engine of a car caught fire on the side of the road, officials said. About 100 acres burned.

The fire started on county land but quickly spread into the Angeles National Forest. An 11-man team, made up of four County Fire Department officials and seven U.S. Forest Service officials, will investigate, Harrison said.

The team will examine equipment safety, wind and brush conditions, and the placement and experience of the crew, he said.

“They’ll take the whole incident step by step. This is a tough deal for all of us. Everybody wants to know what happened and why,” Harrison said.

Two of the Forest Service officials came from the agency’s Technology and Development Center in Missoula, Mont., to investigate whether the protective gear used by the firefighters was adequate. One of them, Ted Putnam, designed the fire shelter that reportedly saved half the crew from injury.

Harrison said that when firefighters are injured or killed, investigations are routine.

A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman confirmed that detectives from that agency also are investigating.

Helicopters that dropped the men in the canyon were dropping water on the fire and continued dropping water on the men after they became trapped, Harrison said.

Christopher Herman, 25, of Downey, and Arthur Ruezga, 33, of Valinda, near La Puente, were killed in the fire. Herman was pronounced dead at the scene and Ruezga was pronounced dead at Sherman Oaks Hospital Burn Center, Harrison said.

Christopher Barth, 25, of Seal Beach, and Hector Gabriel Larios, 19, of Chino Hills, remained in critical but stable condition Saturday at the burn center, said nursing supervisor Faye Deichler.

A county medical examiner who responded to the scene of the fire Friday said it was unclear where Herman and Ruezga were when the fire swept over them. On Saturday, gear belonging to the injured men was scattered on a small dirt road that cut across the canyon, but the medical examiner said the bodies of Herman and Ruezga were airlifted to the road before he arrived.

“I found the bodies on the little road, but they had been airlifted to that point,” he said. “The poor fire guys were so traumatized, because they never lose one of their own. About all the guys could tell me was that (the bodies) were all pretty close together.”

Harrison said the location of the crew members will be probed by investigators.

Questions also remain about the level of experience of the crew members.

County fire officials would not disclose Saturday how long the firefighters who were killed and injured in the blaze had been with the department. Although many entry level firefighters get their start fighting brush fires at crew camp, not all of them are beginners, Harrison said.

“Many of the people serving as fire suppression aides are using it as a steppingstone to become a firefighter on an engine crew, but some of them are there for years,” he said.

Larios, however, had only been fighting fires for a year.

According to his family, Larios graduated from the Rio Hondo Fire Academy on Aug. 1 after one year of training. On Saturday, he was in good spirits despite burns over most of his body, and severely swollen lips, his father and sister said.

“He told me: ‘I’m a fireman, and this is my career. I knew the risks when I took the oath,’ ” said Tanya Larios, 24.

“His attitude is great. He knows he’s going to live,” said Hector Camacho Larios, 40, a Bell police officer.

His son told him that the eight-man crew was trapped in a ravine and overcome by the flames as brush exploded and the fire swept over them.

“He said his back was on fire, but he told me it was just one of those things that happened. It caught them off guard,” Larios said.

The family had faith that Larios would pull through, they said.

“When he was young, I told him to be a fireman, because everybody loves a fireman,” the elder Larios said. “I saw the fire last night on television and my wife asked if I thought he was there. I said: ‘If he is, nothing will happen to him, because nothing happens to firefighters.’ ”

Times staff writer Timothy Williams also contributed to this story.