Archive photo of the day
Nurse talks to a burn victim of the Camp Fuji fire at Yokota Air Base, 1979
Stars and Stripes
October 25, 2024
(Ron Hatcher/Stars and Stripes)
Yokota Air Base, Japan, Oct. 22, 1979: Capt. Cynthia Young, a nurse, talks to an unidentified burn victim from the Camp Fuji fire on board a C-141 before liftoff as Airman Joseph Dancer of the 665th Tactical Hospital at Yokota AB, Japan, monitors the intravenous medication. The plane was one of two Air Force C-141s sent to Japan by the 9th Air Evacuation Hospital at Clark Air Base, Philippines to fly 38 Marines burned in the Camp Fuji fire to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. Military medical teams from around Japan, the Philippines and the United States worked frantically over the weekend to treat the victims and prepare them for the flights.
This month marks the 45th anniversary of the Camp Fuji fire. The fire erupted Oct. 19, 1979 after typhoon winds damaged a 5,000 gallon fuel bladder causing it to rupture and send fuel gushing downhill towards Quonset huts housing more than 1,200 Marines and sailors.
A kerosene stove in one of the huts ignited the fuel river and the subsequent blaze injured 81 and in the end cost the lives of 13 Marines. Read the initial report published in Stars and Stripes on the tragic fire and see more photos here.