0:00:32.559,0:00:34.710 Speaker 1: We got to the Holloway fire. 0:00:34.710,0:00:40.589 We were then when it started out. 0:00:40.589,0:00:48.309 They had us in different divisions and we were there for 12 days. 0:00:48.309,0:00:52.039 Then we got moved to a different division. 0:00:52.039,0:00:55.420 They told us that we're going to burn out. 0:00:55.420,0:01:00.269 We were in grass and sagebrush. 0:01:00.269,0:01:02.530 It was pretty tall. 0:01:02.530,0:01:04.229 We did a burn out. 0:01:04.229,0:01:05.390 It went well. 0:01:05.390,0:01:09.490 We went about couple miles. 0:01:09.490,0:01:18.020 Suddenly the wind started picking up on top of the hill and started hearing that the fire 0:01:18.020,0:01:19.190 jumped the line. 0:01:19.190,0:01:24.539 Our supervisor told us all to go back to our carriers to the safety zone. 0:01:24.539,0:01:27.200 It was all black down there. 0:01:27.200,0:01:29.530 That was where the safety zone was. 0:01:29.530,0:01:36.940 The fire just started picking up and the smoke ... All the smoke, we couldn't see anymore. 0:01:36.940,0:01:40.659 We were kind of staggered out. 0:01:40.659,0:01:47.579 We started making our way down, but with all the smoke we couldn't even see about five 0:01:47.579,0:01:53.060 feet from each other ... Or just all the smoke started getting really thick. 0:01:53.060,0:01:55.840 I told her, "Let's get to the engine." 0:01:55.840,0:01:58.460 All of the sudden it just got dark. 0:01:58.460,0:02:01.939 It got real dark and I couldn't see. 0:02:01.939,0:02:06.270 I saw the lights, but after awhile I couldn't see them anymore. 0:02:06.270,0:02:12.560 All of the sudden I got this one place where it was just [inaudible 00:02:11] and around 0:02:12.560,0:02:14.380 all I could see was rocks. 0:02:14.380,0:02:21.950 There was a big trees around it and there wasn't no grass or any sagebrush within that 0:02:21.950,0:02:27.239 little circle, just little short ones probably a foot tall. 0:02:27.239,0:02:30.920 I said, "If it caught on fire it would probably burn up fast." 0:02:30.920,0:02:34.420 I had to do quick thinking, I guess. 0:02:34.420,0:02:39.510 So I got to that little clearing and I tried to radio in the guys. 0:02:39.510,0:02:44.430 I asked them where they were, if they could yell. 0:02:44.430,0:02:46.750 But I couldn't hear anything. 0:02:46.750,0:02:49.310 All I heard was the fire. 0:02:49.310,0:02:59.659 It was roaring and I looked to the south and all I could see was a big old wall of smoke 0:02:59.659,0:03:02.600 going up, and dark. 0:03:02.600,0:03:07.040 As I stood there and listened for awhile, I could hear it coming. 0:03:07.040,0:03:11.870 I could hear the fire coming towards me and just getting louder every time. 0:03:11.870,0:03:15.650 I just knew that I couldn't go nowhere else. 0:03:15.650,0:03:20.200 Finally got in contact with the assistant sup. 0:03:20.200,0:03:27.920 He asked me where I was and if I could get out to somewhere where it had already burnt, 0:03:27.920,0:03:30.750 where we did our burn line, and I said, "No. 0:03:30.750,0:03:33.219 I don't think so." 0:03:33.219,0:03:40.189 I told him that I could see smoke, all I could see was smoke all around me. 0:03:40.189,0:03:47.891 And when I looked up I could only see small circle of the sky, and I told him that I could 0:03:47.891,0:03:56.769 hear the fire getting closer and closer and it was just coming all around me so I told 0:03:56.769,0:04:02.140 him that I needed to deploy my fire shelter and I needed to do it now. 0:04:02.140,0:04:11.010 So after I told him that, I put ... I took off my pack and I set it down and I looked 0:04:11.010,0:04:21.810 up again and I saw the wall of smoke getting higher and darker. 0:04:21.810,0:04:31.490 So I took out the fire shelter and I got my ... I unwrapped it and I looked one more time, 0:04:31.490,0:04:36.630 and I ... It was just so dark. 0:04:36.630,0:04:45.140 I didn't have no problem unwrapping it and unfolding it. 0:04:45.140,0:04:49.389 It's just like we do in the practice fire shelter. 0:04:49.389,0:04:57.789 You just open it and kind of flap it around and it'll open. 0:04:57.789,0:05:08.190 And I was trying to get my radio, but apparently my radio's mic was wrapped around my shoulder 0:05:08.190,0:05:14.139 strap so I just threw my pack in and I got under. 0:05:14.139,0:05:20.889 I knew that fire was coming so through the fire shelter practice deployments you're supposed 0:05:20.889,0:05:25.330 to face the opposite of where the fire's coming from. 0:05:25.330,0:05:29.139 So my legs were where the fire was coming from. 0:05:29.139,0:05:36.949 I had taken my gloves off, but I did not realize that I wasn't working my gloves till I got 0:05:36.949,0:05:44.690 in the shelter and when the fire came I looked and I didn't have my gloves on, but I guess 0:05:44.690,0:05:52.150 the panic just ... I didn't know that I had taken it off. 0:05:52.150,0:05:59.860 I used my neck shroud to hold the fire shelter down. 0:05:59.860,0:06:07.050 I heard the assistant sup ask me if I was okay and to keep talking to him. 0:06:07.050,0:06:13.900 I did that and I just stayed under the shelter and it started getting really hot. 0:06:13.900,0:06:16.250 I told him, "It's getting hot under here." 0:06:16.250,0:06:24.580 And he just said, "It's going to be okay," and to keep talking to him. 0:06:24.580,0:06:32.199 I knew that someone was on the other side of that radio, I felt better that I wasn't 0:06:32.199,0:06:34.840 alone, that I could talk to somebody. 0:06:34.840,0:06:39.080 It's just scary. 0:06:39.080,0:06:45.490 I could feel the fire getting closer and it just got real hot. 0:06:45.490,0:06:57.430 It got real hot and my breathing, it got so hot that when I tried to take in air, all 0:06:57.430,0:07:06.240 I could feel was hot air that I was breathing in and it kind of suffocated me. 0:07:06.240,0:07:18.110 So I drank my water and it was just so suffocating that I kind of panicked, but I kept telling 0:07:18.110,0:07:26.190 myself I was going to be okay, and the only thing I could think about was to help me with 0:07:26.190,0:07:30.070 my breathing was I dug a little hole in the ground. 0:07:30.070,0:07:39.849 I took my neck shroud and I covered my mouth into the ground and it ... With the ground 0:07:39.849,0:07:51.120 being cooler, it really helped with my breathing, so I just kept my mouth like that the whole 0:07:51.120,0:07:52.160 time. 0:07:52.160,0:08:01.500 I could hear the assistant sup calling me, but I didn't want to breathe in any more of 0:08:01.500,0:08:09.259 that hot air, so I just kept quiet on the radio, but I could tell that he was kind of 0:08:09.259,0:08:10.409 getting worried. 0:08:10.409,0:08:14.389 It seemed like a long time, but it wasn't that long. 0:08:14.389,0:08:22.509 It was still hot, but it kind of cooled down to where I can lift my face back up and once 0:08:22.509,0:08:31.050 I could breathe, I got back on the radio and I said, I told him I was doing okay. 0:08:31.050,0:08:36.580 They said, "The helicopter is going to be around your area and tell us when it's right 0:08:36.580,0:08:37.580 above you." 0:08:37.580,0:08:39.360 I said, "Okay." 0:08:39.360,0:08:43.479 I could hear the helicopter and I told him I could hear it. 0:08:43.479,0:08:47.550 So it took them quite awhile for them to find me. 0:08:47.550,0:08:51.190 After that it started getting hot again. 0:08:51.190,0:08:55.570 I told them that it's starting to get hot again. 0:08:55.570,0:09:04.930 They told me that there's another flame front coming, so we're going to have to pull back. 0:09:04.930,0:09:05.930 He said, "Just hang in there." 0:09:05.930,0:09:08.380 And I said, "Okay." 0:09:08.380,0:09:14.540 I just told myself to hang in there, talking to the assistant sup. 0:09:14.540,0:09:27.120 It just helped me to get through it, and the guys cheering me on saying, "You're going 0:09:27.120,0:09:34.300 to be okay." 0:09:34.300,0:09:35.991 That's what helped me get through it. 0:09:35.991,0:09:44.060 It just started to cool down again. 0:09:44.060,0:09:52.610 They told me they were going to look for me again, and I was trying to shout at them and 0:09:52.610,0:09:56.700 they were shouting, but I couldn't hear anything except the fire. 0:09:56.700,0:10:00.470 I don't know. 0:10:00.470,0:10:12.019 They told me that another flame front was coming back and they had to wait it out. 0:10:12.019,0:10:21.540 And I think there was about four flame fronts that came before they found me. 0:10:21.540,0:10:42.940 So ... After that, they found me and got out and the guy that found me took me to where 0:10:42.940,0:10:50.850 everybody else was, and they put me on the helicopter and they took me to the hospital. 0:10:50.850,0:11:02.529 I had burns on my right elbow and on my left leg and on the side of my ribcage. 0:11:02.529,0:11:06.360 They weren't that big, but they were about a quarter size. 0:11:06.360,0:11:15.750 They treated those burns and they sent me to thee treatment center, the burn treatment 0:11:15.750,0:11:19.790 center in Utah. 0:11:19.790,0:11:28.500 From there they sent me back home a week later. 0:11:28.500,0:11:34.610 I didn't feel that I had to ... You know, not work. 0:11:34.610,0:11:36.490 I wanted to come to work. 0:11:36.490,0:11:41.459 We all got to face our fears. 0:11:41.459,0:11:46.850 That's just what I had to do, because this is what I love to do. 0:11:46.850,0:11:57.209 This is my job, and I told myself that I'm not going to quit just because of this. 0:11:57.209,0:12:01.160 I'm coming back.