Post led more than 40 firefighters , consisting of USFS , CCC , and BPR employees , up the ridge seeking an opening in the forest to take refuge . Spot fires blew ahead of Post and his crews preventing them from advancing further up the ridge , but they found a rocky outcropping and lay prone on the ground as the fire engulfed them . Crammed together on the outcropping , Post 's men moved around to avoid the flames and USFS employee Paul Tyrrell ( who later died ) used his own body to keep several CCC firefighters from panicking and to shield them from the fire . The flames and heat nevertheless drove five firefighters to charge the flames in an attempt to escape to the other side of the firefront , but only one of them survived . A total of nine firefighters were killed on the fire lines and six more died later from their burns , while another 38 suffered various injuries . The Blackwater Fire is tied for fourth involving the greatest loss of life by firefighters on a wildfire in U.S. history . It killed more professional wildland firefighters in the U.S. than any other in the 103 years between the Great Fire of 1910 and the Yarnell Hill Fire in 2013
Great Fire of 1910
Great Fire of 1910
Blackwater Fire of 1937