IN MEMORY OF THE 1966 VALLEY BLAZE : FIREFIGHTERS SALUTED MONUMENT PAYS TRIBUTE TO 12 YOUNG MEN WHO DIED BATTLING FLAMES.

Byline: Elizabeth Aguilera Daily News Staff Writer

U.S. Forest Service officials dedicated a new monument at El Cariso Regional Park in Sylmar on Friday to the 12 young firefighters who died 30 years ago in the Loop Fire.

In one of the worst fire accidents in Los Angeles County history, the El Cariso Hot Shots crew members, who were based in the Cleveland National Forest in San Diego County, were trapped in Pacoima Canyon by wind-driven flames on Nov. 1, 1966. The men ranged in age from 18 to 23.

``It was a real sense of loss and frustration,'' said Reseda realty specialist Cliff Johnson, 53, who was a Forest Service firefighter in the Loop blaze.

``Firefighters are all well trained and in good condition, so it was a pretty helpless feeling to see a crew you worked with, doing their best, get caught in a situation like that,'' he recalled. ``There was nowhere for them to go.''

El Cariso Regional Park already was dedicated to this elite group of firefighters in 1973. On Friday, the new concrete slab, 5 feet by 3 feet and depicting the blaze, glistened at the base of the mountains where the fire occurred.

``We also acknowledged firefighters because it is a dangerous job and they put their lives on the line for wild lands and us,'' said Gail Wright, public affairs officer for the U.S. Forest Service.

County fire officials and several fire crews attended.

``They were intimately involved in that rescue,'' she said referring to the Loop Fire. ``They have been supportive and cooperative of this event,'' she said.

She said Forest Service officials hoped that the rededication of the park would bring some closure to the families of those who died and to the survivors of the disaster in 1966.

``There was a real sense of camaraderie among the family members of the deceased and survivors,'' Wright said.

The El Cariso crew had been battling hot spots on the fire that had blackened more than 2,100 acres. Fueled by strong winds, the fire trapped 12 firefighters in the recesses of a steep canyon.

It was the largest death toll in a wildfire since a blaze in Griffith Park claimed 29 lives in 1933.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1) Robert Chounard, with his mother, Noeline, wipes away tears at the memory of 12 firefighters killed in 1966.

(2) Relatives of Frederick Danner, who was 18 when he died fighting the Loop Fire in Pacoima Canyon, make a pencil rubbing of his name from a new monument.

(3) The El Cariso Hot Shots are reminded of the dangers of their work at a service for 12 predecessors killed in a single blaze 30 years ago.

Myung J. Chun/Daily News