Fifty-one years ago, on Halloween night in 1974, La Mirada residents experienced an unforgettable disaster. As children went door to door trick-or-treating, a Santa Fe freight train derailed—sending tankers crashing and erupting into flames near the neighborhoods of Bluefield, Stage, Lorca, San Ardo, Jalon, and Jacana.
Witnesses recalled the moment vividly:
“When the first crash sound hit, me and some friends started running… then the tanker blew—just about blew us off our feet,” remembered Ray McMillen, who lived behind Alondra Market.
“We were evacuated for days,” said René Stewart Price, while John Powell, who lived at Bluefield and Stage, recalled simply, “We remember!”
Don Earhart added, “We were trick-or-treating when a giant flash lit up the sky. The fire burned for a couple of days.”
Residents were forced to evacuate for several days as crews worked to contain the fire and clean up the wreckage.
This iconic photograph, captured by Craig Walker the following morning—November 1, 1974—remains one of the most haunting images in La Mirada’s history.
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It was a Santa Fe train not Southern Pacific.
I was there when it happened. We stood in our backyard and watched the flames that rose so high we could see them over the top of the houses that stood between us and the tracks which were a few miles away!
Wow!!