Photos: Veteran L.A. County firefighter, overcome by smoke and flames, dies after battling house fire
The body of veteran Los Angeles County firefighter Jonathan Flagler is transported to the coroner’s van for transport from Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance. Flagler died after battling a fire in Rancho Palos Verdes.
A veteran Los Angeles County firefighter was overcome by smoke and flames today while battling a Rancho Palos Verdes house fire and had to be pulled from the inferno by fellow firefighters and taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Jonathan Flagler, 47, was among the crew from Fire Station 83 that responded to the blaze around 2 a.m. in the 30700 block of Tarapaca Road.
Los Angeles County firefighters, from left, Bryson Dow, Steve Hayes, Harry Morales, Thomas Thompson and Capt. Robert Ruiz salute during a procession for fallen firefighter Jonathan Flagler as they escort his body to the coroner’s office.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Jonathan Flagler’s wife, Jenny, and sons leave Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where the firefighter was pronounced dead.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters prepare to hoist an American flag outside the coroner’s office in Los Angeles as they prepare for the arrival of Jonathan Flagler’s body in Los Angeles.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Firefighters mourn Flagler.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
A procession carrying Jonathan Flagler’s body arrives at the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.
Firefighter fatally injured while battling Rancho Palos Verdes blaze is identified as Jonathan Flagler, 47. He leaves behind a wife and two sons.
Jan. 6, 2022
A view from the Rosecrans overpass on the 110 Freeway shows a coroner’s van as a procession escorts Jonathan Flagler’s body to the coroner’s office.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Los Angeles city firefighter Christopher Vu attaches a black band to his badge in honor of fallen firefighter Jonathan Flagler.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Firefighters salute as the body of Jonathan Flagler is transported from Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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An aerial view of the burned home in the 30700 block of Tarapaca Road in Rancho Palos Verdes, where Los Angeles County firefighter Jonathan Flagler had battled the blaze.
Carolyn Cole is a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times. Her coverage of the civil crisis in Liberia won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. Cole has been named U.S. newspaper photographer of the year three times. Cole grew up in California and Virginia, before attending the University of Texas, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She went on to earn a master of art’s degree from Ohio University.
Gary Coronado was a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times from 2016-24. He is a 2007 Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature photography for images of Central Americans risking life and limb as they jump aboard the trains from southern Mexico bound for the United States and a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist in breaking news photography for team coverage of hurricanes. He began freelancing for the Orange County Register and relocated to South Florida in 2001, when he was awarded a fellowship through the Freedom Forum. Coronado grew up in Southern California and graduated from USC.
Irfan Khan was a staff photographer with the Los Angeles Times from 1996 to 2024. He previously served as a freelance photographer for the publication beginning in 1989. Khan started his career as a commercial photographer in 1973 in Pakistan and moved to Dubai in 1977, where he worked for an advertising agency and at a leading English newspaper. Khan’s assignments have taken across Southern California and the U.S. Internationally, he has photographed the Hajj in Saudi Arabia and war zones of the Pakistan/Afghanistan border in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He was part of the team awarded the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news for coverage of the 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino. In his spare time, he enjoys listening to semi-classical music of the Indian subcontinent and playing cricket on Sundays.
