Ryan Stewart Osler

Fire Engineer Osler was on-duty and assigned to the Canyon Incident on the South side of the Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County California. The Ventura County Fire Department assigned multiple units to this incident under a state-wide mutual aid agreement through the California State Office of Emergency Services.

Fire Engineer Osler was staffing a tanker (tender) on this incident. The unit designation was OESWT12. The tanker was dispatched to the incident on September 19, 2016 and traveled to the incident locality that day. The unit worked on-scene as assigned on September 20, 2016. At approximately 2133hrs on September 20, 2016, OESWT12 and the crew composed of Fire Engineer Osler and another firefighter went off-line for the day. The crew bedded down at a local hotel. On the morning of September 21, 2016, at approximately 0541hrs, OESWT12 was assigned to perform support operations at a helibase.

Fire Engineer Osler was a passenger in OESWT12 as it drove from the hotel to its assigned work site for the day. Driving conditions that morning were complicated by darkness and heavy fog. At approximately 0630hrs, as OESWT12 entered a roundabout, the left-front tire of the vehicle struck a raised curb. The driver attempted to brake and gain control of the vehicle but it rolled, coming to rest on its right side. Fire Engineer Osler was restrained by a seat belt but he received fatal injuries in the crash. He was later extricated from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.

Incident Location: Highway 246 at Purisima Road in Lompoc, CA (U.S. National Grid: 10S GD 37510 38925)