By Gene Ghiotto
The Press Enterprise
RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CALIF. — As friends and family looked on, a section of Interstate 215 was dedicated to the memory of a California Department of Forestry firefighter who died of injuries he suffered while battling a fire more than 50 years ago.
“One night, August 8, 1959, this firefighter stood the test,” Fire Chief John Hawkins said at the ceremony at the Riverside County Fire Department headquarters in Perris. “John Guthrie did not make it.”
A 5.8-mile portion of I-215 in Perris in Riverside County from the Ramona Expressway to 4th Street was named the CDF Firefighter John D. Guthrie Memorial Highway. Signs were put up on Friday.
About a dozen friends and family members attended the dedication, including the late firefighter’s brother Tom and son John. Both were glad the tribute was made.
“It’s great,” Guthrie’s son John said later in an interview.
After the ceremony, Carlo Guthrie said she was happy to see the highway dedicated for her late husband.
“It’s just one more thing I’ve completed,” she said. “Some people asked me why we did it here. It’s something for my son and his kids to see.”
Guthrie grew up in Perris. After two years in the U.S. Navy, he returned to Perris and signed on with the U.S. Forest Service as a firefighter. In 1954, he was stationed in the El Cariso fire station. A year later, he was hired by what now is Cal Fire and was stationed at the Lake Elsinore station.
Guthrie was working out of the Old Town Temecula Station when the Decker Canyon Fire began near Lake Elsinore after a vehicle crash on the Ortega Highway in the Cleveland National Forest.
Guthrie and his crew responded to the blaze and were sent off a main road about a mile east of El Cariso Village to begin setting backfires. The wind, though, shifted and pushed the fire towards the crew.
Guthrie ordered the firefighters into the truck for protection despite the fact there was no room for him. The flames burned over the truck, killing the crew and severely burning Guthrie. He died of his injuries Sept.14, 1959.
Guthrie was one of more than 500 firefighters sent to battle the flames. In all, seven firefighters died and 27 others were injured.
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