Bio

He was an American civilian living in Northern California during the early 1950s. Prior to July 1953, there is no widely documented history of violent crime or large-scale arson attributed to him in public records.

Pattan’s actions became historically significant not because of his personal background, but because of the catastrophic consequences of the fires he deliberately ignited within a federal forest. His case later became central to wildfire training, safety doctrine, and institutional reform within U.S. fire management agencies.

Murder Story

The Rattlesnake Fire was started by arsonist Stanford Pattan on July 9, 1953 in Powder House Canyon on the Mendocino National Forest in northern California. The wildfire killed one Forest Service employee and 14 volunteer firefighters from the New Tribes Mission. It burned over 1,300 acres before it was controlled on July 11, 1953. It became a well-known firefighting textbook case on fatal wildland fires.

Pattan started two fires, one on private land and the other along Alder Springs Road inside the national forest boundary. He was later convicted and sentenced on two counts of arson.

The second fire continued burning uphill in Rattlesnake Canyon. Fire crews from the Forest Service and the state responded, along with a pick-up crew hired from the New Tribes Mission at Fouts Springs. By late evening the fire was nearing containment. At about 9 p.m. the wind picked up, reversed direction, and poured downhill. Fifteen firefighters were burned to death as they tried to outrun the fire through the dense chaparral.

As a consequence of the fire, there were major changes to wildland fire training and firefighting safety standards. The incident increased awareness of how weather affects fire behavior. The 1953 Rattlesnake Fire was one of the events that led to the 1957 Report to the Chief, the Report of the Task Force to Recommend Action to Reduce the Chances of Men Being Killed by Burning While Fighting Fire.

Pattan later pleaded guilty to two counts of willful burning and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released after serving three years. He died in 2009.