The memorial honors Cal Fire firefighters and numerous others from various other municipal and wildland firefighting agencies , who have died from duty-related causes , some medical in nature , and others which occurred on-duty while directly engaged in an emergency incident . incident . Typically these on-duty incident related deaths are analyzed and examined more closely than deaths from other medical reasons . Improvements in firefighting safety derived from case-studies of fatal firefighter incidents may be regarded as memorials , too . For example , flame resistant nomex clothing and upgraded training were required for Cal Fire employees after Steve Arrollado was burned in the Bell Valley fire . The wildland fire shelter was mandated for all Cal Fire firefighters after the Spanish Ranch fire in 1979 , and it was redesigned and improved after the disastrous South Canyon fire near Glenwood Springs , CO. in 1994 . The 1990 death of Kenneth Enslow prompted use of the " Look Up , Look Down " safety training program for Cal Fire employees . A variety of firefighting air tanker crashes eventually led to wider inspections and removing the oldest and most vulnerable large air tankers from the national wildland firefighting fleet
South Canyon fire
South Canyon Fire
California Firefighters Memorial