( CNN ) -- A California jury Wednesday recommended the death penalty after convicting a man on murder and arson charges in the deaths of five U.S. Forest Service firefighters who died in a 2006 blaze outside Los Angeles . Smoke rises over a flag flying at half-staff for fallen firefighters October 27 , 2006 , in Banning , California . Raymond Lee Oyler of Beaumont , California , was convicted on five counts of first-degree murder , including two special circumstances -- that the murders were committed during an arson and that multiple murders were committed -- making him eligible for the death penalty . Oyler was also convicted of 11 counts of arson and 10 counts of use of an incendiary device in those arsons . Sentencing is set for June 5 . Firefighters Mark Loutzenhiser , 44 ; Jess McLean , 27 ; Jason McKay , 27 ; and Daniel Hoover-Najera , 20 , died October 26 , 2006 , during a blaze called the Esperanza fire when the wildfire , fueled by Santa Ana winds , enveloped their engine . The fifth firefighter , Pablo Cerda , 23 , died October 31 , 2006 , at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center , where he had been taken after sustaining burns over 90 percent of his body . Days before being charged in Esperanza Fire , Oyler had been arrested and charged with two counts of arson in a June 2006 fire in the Banning Pass area . The 41,173-acre Esperanza fire outside Los Angeles destroyed 34 homes and 20 outbuildings , mainly in the Twin Pines and Poppet Flats areas , which had been under mandatory evacuations . The firefighters died trying to protect a partially built house in Twin Pines , a rural mountain community .
Jury convicts him on five counts of first - degree murder , two counts of arson . A fire outside Los Angeles , California , killed five firefighters . Jury recommends conviction ; sentencing set for June 30th .