FULLERTON – Two Fullerton firefighters who went missing while backpacking at Yosemite National Park before being rescued went off course after they discovered their trail had burned during recent brush fires.

Fire Capt. Javier Avelar, 48, of Rancho Cucamonga and Dave Brown, 32, of Huntington Beach didn’t return home Sunday as planned, igniting a search before they were found safe Tuesday.

The pair, experienced outdoorsmen, started their trip in the White Wolf area Sept. 7.

“From Wednesday to Friday, the backpacking trip was going great,” fire Chief Wolfgang Knabe said Wednesday during a news conference to detail what happened to the firefighters.

But on Saturday, they lost the trail.

They kept going, the chief said, only to encounter “deep and treacherous terrain.”

The two, who work at different fire stations, spent Saturday trying to find a path out by fingertip rock climbing, which bruised and cut their hands and feet. They did the same on Sunday, getting stuck in a crevice.

On Monday, they were able to find the shoreline of the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and tried to cross an area blocked by a boulder. Reluctant to take the longer hiking path, they opted to swim around the boulder.

A strong current pulled them in different directions, the chief said, with Brown making it to land while Avelar struggled with a flotation device. He, too, eventually made it to land – but now the firefighters were separated.

“They spent the night alone in cold, wet clothes,” Knabe said. “No fire, no food.”

Temperatures at night were in the mid-40s.

Tuesday morning, Brown found a ranger station. He told National Park Service crews where the pair had separated, and crews focused the search in that area.

Back in Fullerton, the men’s co-workers, their “fire family” as the chief put it, were awaiting news and praying with a chaplain. By this time, Avelar’s son, Brown’s brother and brother-in-law, the chief and seven Fullerton-Brea firefighters were in Yosemite. The joy of hearing that Brown was found alive was replaced by concern that Avelar was not with him.

From helicopters, searchers spotted some of the pair’s equipment.

Ground crews went to the area that Brown had described and found Avelar wet and shivering near the reservoir’s shoreline. Before noon, and just a couple of hours after his friend emerged, Avelar was rescued by boat.

“When he was found, there probably wasn’t a dry eye in the house,” Knabe said.

They were driven home Tuesday night. A medical evaluation will determine when they will return to firefighting. Avelar had frostbite, hypothermia and was dehydrated, while Brown injured an ankle.

“Avelar told me several times that he thought he was going to die,” Knabe said.

The chief credits the men’s survival to their experience and instincts. The chief had told Avelar’s wife that good news would come.

“I didn’t want to tell her that he wasn’t coming home,” the chief said. “It’s a great day for the Fullerton Fire Department. We brought two of our own home.”

Contact the writer: 714-796-7865 or afausto@scng.com

http://launch.newsinc.com/js/embed.js

var _ndnq = _ndnq || []; _ndnq.push([’embed’]);