Narrator: The Salt Fire started by lightning on August 25th, 2011 in the mountains of the
Salmon-Challis National Forest in Idaho. The fire season had been slow to arrive due to
cool and wet conditions earlier in the summer. The forest here is a thick, decadent stand
of mostly lodgpole pine and subalpine fir. With high crown density and abundant ladder
fuels, the area is mapped as high to extreme crown fire risk. Add to that, thirty to seventy
percent of the lodgepole is dead because of the mountain pine beetle, and you have the
potential for extreme fire behavior. By the morning of the 29th, the fire has grown
to over 1,600 acres. The Type 2 team is already in place, managing multiple ground and air
resources, with more incoming. The main effort is concentrated on holding the southern part
of the fire, Division Alpha and building line on the western part, Division Zulu. We sat
down with some of the firefighters that were there that day, who experienced when time
runs out as a fast moving fire takes away their options.
Jerran Flinders: The primary ops on the team had been on, kind of flown that fire from
uh, he was out there doing smoke air attack work and had flown it from its infancy, so
he'd kinda of watched it progress and grown and ya know, he's like-itís not, ya know,
Greg was really good about, hey I saw this thing start ya know, I've seen what itís
done every day, um ya know there's a lot of fuel out there on the ground but it doesn't
really, ya know itís not making any big runs-itís just backing around and skunking around. But
I think we all knew the potential was there, we just- we didn't know when it was gonna
do its thing. Dan Zajanc: It looked like it was wanting
to burn, but not really burning and I remember talking to you and it was like, because it
was really wet, record winter up there and late snow and ya know, it was all a big wet
big and I was like man its just-its lookin' like it wants to do something but itís not
really doing anything. But at the same time, everyone like I said, has been there and seen
fires on that forest ya know, go really really go gigantic, ya know in a short amount of
time. Brian Cardoza: It was mostly under burn up
to that point, backing off of Moyer Peak, but extreme potential, man. I mean like, ya
know a lot of moss, sub-alpine a lot of dead stuff-just a lot of potential but-hadn't seen
the fire behavior up to that point. Jeff Bass: But I don't think any of us had
underestimated it with as much air that we had to put in with uh, the engines and the
crews on the ground. I don't think we underestimated its potential.
Brian: Ya, you could, you could look at the fire at 10 o'clock in the morning it would
be one foot flame lengths 360 degrees around it. So it was having no problem burning, backing.
Which is, pretty rare to see that much fire behavior even though its low intensity, that
early in the morning. Jerran: Right, it looked very much like the
southeast, where you've got like, that continuous leaf litter and a perfect ya know., everything
is available-that's very much like how it was there.
Jeff: Just uh, getting the south flank and trying to hook the west end, we uh, it was
pretty high resistance to control um, with the retardant and uh a lot of helicopter work
along the whole flank and uh, without the people and the air team-we probably wouldn't
have held anything and that was before the conditions and the ERC's were high, I think
almost every day. But the condition uh, terrain, wind, ERC and fuel bed didn't line up like
they did late on the 29th. Narrator: The resources assigned to Division
Bravo initially are the Idaho City Hotshots, with one skidgeon, building a contingency
saw line along the head of the Woodtick Creek Drainage, tying it into Road 020, and then
plumbing it with the idea of a possible burnout in the future.
Jerran: We were just trying to get something set up where we could, corral as many as the
spots as we could cuz we knew, like Brian was saying, we knew there was we knew we had
spots right outside of Moyer Meadow and we, ya know you could look down into Woodtick
and see spots so we were trying to get as many as these corralled as we could and get
a good decent line to work off of for later. Brian: So we looked at going-Dan and I talked
about going direct down into Woodtick a few times on the 28th, and just chose uh pretty
much chose not to just because lack of safety zones and it was super-thick, heavy fuel and
just hard to get any Intel into Woodtick at that point.
Jeff: Trying to support an under slung line and that stuff-I wasn't, I knew we weren't
gonna get heavies in there, it's gonna be iffy for SEATS, itís on the lee side-the
general lee, I was happy you weren't going down in that hole.
Narrator: Most resources are able to drive to Moyer Meadow and stage, but the switchbacks
along the way are too tight to navigate for a truck with lowboy trailer hauling a dozer
for work on the southern and western flanks. This truck and trailer park at a good, flat
spot in the trees and the dozer walks in. Jerran: Ya know, this is kinda that transition
period of uh, initial attack getting ramped into extended attack with ya know, like we
say a lot of resources coming in. And as you came in the 020 Road and you saw ya know,
where things were on the initial attack, uh you know a few things really stuck out in
my mind-which was where we started to make the uh, parking area here, there was a lowboy
transport backed into the trees there with uh, ya know trees touching it on all sides.
I mean it was just stuck in there enough to get the equipment off and then he was way
out here working this south piece ya know, a long ways away from that. So, ya know immediately
you see that-thatís red flag. That like hey-we're getting a lot of equipment in here, this piece
of equipment is already parked right here, let's make this a parking area-a turnaround
area-ya know something for when folks are coming in-they can at least get turned around
here, ya know and get out. So when I was kind of driving around there and, uh first thing
in the morning, ya know, drive back this little road into Sqawboard Meadow, saw that, uh Todd
Camm, Dozer Boss from Alaska showed up, I gave him a briefing.
Todd Camm: We'd already been about four hours into the process of getting in there-they
were wanting to make a parking area for those transports. It was-ya know up on a, up on
a ridegtop, it was a lot of dead lodgepole in it. Kinda sat in a 'X' type things with
a main road coming into it on one side and then there were two-tracks going out of the
corners of it-ya know, in either direction. One of them down into Squawboard Meadows and
the other one off to the, the southeast I think it is.
Dan: There were a lot of folks coming in, almost all of them ya know, were coming through
this road, heading to other divisions so it was a lot of kinda, I was-seemed like I was
doing a lot of traffic duty too because people would come up and go, hey where are-we've
gotta go here, we've gottta go there. So it was a lot of kinda steering people to different
places-t was starting to get really busy plus assorted camp folks coming in dropping off
hoses and pumps. It seemed like once that parking spot started getting made, people
just started funneling towards it, ya know Iíd I'd come by that parking spot and there
would be, ya know a bunch more people where you'd kinda go man, who are those guys and
you'd try to get them lined out because ya know, you make a parking spot-people are going
to start parking there. Brian: And then at some point, we're still
cutting indirect line, I hear on the radio, I hear somebody ask if itís a safety zone
up there? And I believe the quote was something like, it's not a safety zone yet but we're
going to keep pushing it until it is one. That's what I heard and then from then, that
kinda from that point on, it was a safety zone. Everybody from Jeff to Ops, to everybody
was calling it a safety zone. And not, not necessarily saying it was a safety zone. Point
of reference is-the rigs are parked at the safety zone, lowboys are at the safety zone,
Idaho City Hotshots go up to the safety zone, ya know just using it like that.
Narrator: By mid-afternoon, the RH has fallen to the mid-teens and the fire behavior increases
all around the fire. Firefighter: Ya dude, itís spottiní all
the way up there! Jeff: Most of the day-drift smoke form the
entire fire is camouflaging Woodtick and Good Luck. This area started burning later in the
day, developed a column. Hence, that was why Ops to, in my mind, took the helicopter recon
because I couldnít determine where the fire was down there because of the smoke.
Dan: What I told Greg and Jerran basically right before they got in the helicopter, I
said hey, get in there and just get a good solid look. If it is getting close to the
bottom of Woodtick or if it has crossed, I think we should move those lowboys.
Jerran: Uh, Greg Birch, myself and Division Alpha got on the helicopter in Moyer Meadow
and uh, first thing we wanted to look at was the slop that was going on in Division Alpha
and uh, talked to the crews on air-to-ground, told them what they had out there. They had
great air support, and started getting ground personnel in there to get around those spots-it
was doable, we could pick it up. Uh, we continued to fly the fire, look at
where it was going, how it was progressing, uh like Jeff said, this was picking up quite
a bit and they didnít have real good visibility in there so we were able to get down underneath
the smoke, take a look and uh, it was getting very close to the bottom of Woodtick Creek-very
close. So we came up, we flew over-looked at uh, DP3 uh, talked to the individuals on
air-to-ground, talked to DeMasters on Air-to-Ground who had just come up, who was another one
of the Operations Sections Chiefs and told him to keep punching that bigger. Flew back
down into Woodtick, uh took another look at it, and I think at that time, both of us had-kind
of an impending sense of urgency that-ya, we need to start to get those lowboys moving.
Then when we landed, thatís when Greg said, hey we need to go get those lowboys out of
there. So I took off and that was kind of the start of things.
Narrator: The fire crosses Woodtick Creek and runs upslope with the wind to the ridgeline.
Jerran: Cruised all the way down, tied into Cardoza here. At the end of his indirect piece
that those guys punched in, said hey- grab a mod, come up here-and I donít know Brian
if I said safety zone or if I said parking area, I donít know. But I said..
Brian: Pick up spots, burn the roadÖ Todd: In our quest to make that spot as big
as we could make it, that road into Squawboard Meadows-the two-track, we had pushed that
shy at one point. Ya gotta make room for the stuff that youíre pushing-weíd been told
earlier that we needed to keep that open but nobody had put any, kind priority on on when
or how. And then it just seemed like, ya know all of a sudden people start rolling in-next
thing I know, I got ya know, rigs all over. Narrator: The fire spreads into Goodluck Creek.
The up valley fire run they were anticipating is happening, but not in the drainage they
expected. At the head of Goodluck, is the parking area. The Ops trainee arrives to confirm
the order of moving the l lowboys and sees that the road to Squawboard Meadow has debris
blocking it. Jerran: So we open that road back up, you
got there and I said, thereís a road going out of uh the area where the dozer is working
that goes into a giant meadow. If things get bad, we can get everybody in there. And I
said to go drive down and check it out to make sure we could get those bigger rigs down
there. Brian: And Iím driving down the road and
the first thing that popped through my mind is Iím wasting my time-thereís frickiní
nothing out here. I mean it looked-it just looked dead. And then all of a sudden you
pop out right about the same time youíre thinking of it and thereís a really nice
meadow there. Narrator: At the same time the two-track to
Squawboard Meadow is being checked out, the lowboy evacuation out Road 020 begins.
Dan: Then the word came, okay letís move them. Letís get them moved. The safety officer
had driven the road just a few minutes before and said, ya know thereís ash on the road
but you still got clear air. I looked at the safety officer and I asked him, hey would
you mind leading these guys out? And what I didnít want to happen is what exactly happened.
I, I donít know who I turned around to talk to, I just wanted the safety officer to just
drive the road, just make another good pass and make sure-because heís in a, a Mitsubishi
something. He can skirt, scoot through there. I remember when I turned back around; I could
see the Safety Officer headed up the road and that first lowboy was right on him. And
around the corner they were going-and itís just one of those things where you go uh oh-you
didnít want that. Jerran: And right about that time when they
got down there, Greg Birch had drove down right at that point and said, hey you havenít
sent that lowboy yet have you? And weíre like ya, we did. Safety Officer called like,
twenty seconds later after Greg Birch showed up and said, yep the fire has crossed the
road we canít get through. Narrator: The hotshot sup returns from Squawboard
Meadow and briefs his crew that Squawboard is the real safety zone here. He then joins
the Ops Chief, Ops trainee and and Division Sup, who are involved with the immediate threat
of getting the lowboy back up the road and out of harmís way.
The dozer is sent to create a quick turnaround for the lowboy but it is not necessary. As
the lowboy driver is already backing up the road.
The Ops Chief then heads towards Moyer Meadow to block any more resources from coming to
the parking area. Brian: And the wind was pushing the fire kind
of away from them but the slope was pushing it right at them. So it was, it was somewhat
head fire coming up the hill at them. Todd: At that point, it was heavy black smoke;
right on top of us-it was coming. And I started walking up behind the lowboy guiding him hand
signals and back up the road to DP3. Pretty much spun, spun the whole way back up in an
18-wheel truck its, he was going hard trying to get back up that hill. And Iím watching
the stuff down below us and Iím wondering if weíre gonna, if weíre gonna get him in
there. Like I said, when you see orange organ down on the timber below us and you start
feeling blasts of heat coming up the hillside, uh got him up there and he got to a certain
point, and started spinning and he couldnít push anymore but heíd pushed far enough in
there that he got the truck out of the road. Jeff: The ROS said 80 chains per hour. That
was the average; average from the bottom to here was 80. Thatís like running 3 miles
in, ya know a certain time. Sprint for 5 minutes, walk for the 5-thatís how the fire did. It
would go in pulses-moving 100 yards, a wall of fire 100 yards rapidly. It was a viscous
looking thing. Dan: And the plan in my head was, Iíve got
all these peoples scattered in this, in this drop point. And some of them are just coming
in and some of them have been here for a little bit. It looks like for right now-the way the
fire is going, weíre gonna be able to back these lowboys in, get everybody rallied up
and then go hey, I donít know what youíre thinkÖwhat youíve been told, this is not
a safety zone. Weíre all gonna go wither to Moyer, which was still in my head the primary
place to go-letís just get this lowboy backed into this drop point, get everybody loaded
up and go back to Moyer. Brian on radio: Alright copy, Iíve got everybody
here at the safety zone and just trying to figure out about what now, I kind of agree
with you, itís going north of us right now. Greg Burch: Ya if it stretches north goes
to the north and east of us then we might be okay in there so keep an eye.
Brian: Ya Greg, if we get one wind shift, itís gonna be here I think we better move
the guys out. Iíll head them back to the meadow right now-the meadow uh, the meadow
you landed in. Either that or we gotta go to the green meadow right now. But weíve
gotta do something. Greg: Ya I drove up that road if you want
to get people coming up the road I think weíve got a little bit of time too.
Brian: Guys head out, back to the main meadow. Letís load everybody up, now!
Firefighter: Come on, boys. Dan: It seemed like the wind slacked a little
bit, or maybe it finally just got aligned with the terrain.
Brian: There was a lot of fire below us coming up the hill.
Dan: But all of a sudden, uh that column just, the column just stood straight up and thatís
when the jet engine sound came on and the sky started going dark, and it was time to
just-it was time to go. Brian-And within seconds, you needed to either
drive to Moyer, or you were going to get cut off from the road. Thatís how fast it was.
So like, just getting on the radio telling everybody to go to Moyer Meadow and you look
down the road and Moyer Meadow was, fire was already across Moyer Meadow-that wasnít an
option. Radio Traffic: Okay, say it again Brian.
Brian over radio: Weíre sending everybody to the green meadow that I, that I went to.
Theyíre not gonna make it to you right now. Radio: Okay, letís get to the green meadow
and Iíll get all the other trucks turned around-nobody else has come down.
Brian: So now we couldnít go to China Springs, we couldnít go to Moyer Meadow and Squawboard
Meadow Road was next in line to get cut off from the fire-is like so-we needed to move
now to Squawboard. Dan: And now itís time to just start grabbing
people basically, yelling at them to just follow, pointing at Idaho Cityís rigs and
yelling at this point to follow those rigs because looking from where Iím seeing, the
whole world looked like it was on fire at this point.
Cardozaís Radio Traffic: Iíve got a whole convoy following me, weíre gonna need the
lowboys here in the safety zone but I need you to get a good spot out there-it might
be wet so just get out in the middle. Brian: All three of us were screaming at everybody,
follow the Idaho City Hotshots buggies, follow the buggies, and follow the buggies. Because
in my head I thought we just follow the buggies right out to the meadow and everybody will
be fine. And I had every intention of being the last one out there with these guys, but
you had maybe a minute to make up your mind to follow the buggies or not, or the road
was going to get cut-off. And about half the rigs followed the buggies initially, then
it looked like some people were gonna stay. And then I left-you guys came in with a couple
more folks seconds after that I think. Dan: Ya, and I think a lot of this has to
do with the fact that I think the people that were coming into this, really late, I think
had the attitude they were driving in to the safety zone at that drop point.
Jerran: I mean if you were just driving by at at the glance, coming up from camp, you
would have no idea that the road leading out of that parking area went to a giant meadow,
because you couldnít see it through the timber. So I think a lot of peopleís perception , lack
of Intel , whatever-if you see a dozer working right there and two lowboys parked, and a
bunch of, ya know people standing there talking looking at maps, ya know why wouldnít you
think that thatís where you should go if things get bad, right?
Dan: Everyone showed up, literally in just enough time to have to turn around and run
away. But to try to get them to follow you down this, crazy overgrown tunnel of of timber
was, was, it was difficult. And it probably wouldíve been for me to, if I didnít know
Brian or Jerran, and somebody didnít know was yelling at me to go down this road and
I had just gotten there, I can see how it wouldíve been hard.
Jerran: So I was probably fifty yards from where the dozer finally parked, I watched
him crawling off of his vehicle and there was kind of a mass confusion-vehicles driving
down there, Iím still yelling at people. The fuel truck driver, I just saw a couple
of people moving around over there and safety officerís vehicle and Todd Cammís vehicle,
was the Dozer Boss and uh, Tony DeMasters whoís the other ops-those three vehicles.
And at that point, I start heading down the road, I see Tony DeMasters come through, and
thatís it. Nobody else is coming. Thereís still two other vehicles that havenít come
so I call them on the radio-said they canít make it. They didnít see where we went. So
I know that theyíre in there, I know that theyíve got four people.
Jerran over radio: Safety Gerrish, youíre bringing up the rear.
Safety Officer Gerrish: Negative, we couldnít get (walked on)
Narrator: During all the chaos, the operator feared that he might hit someone in all the
dust and stopped the dozer on the south side of the opening. Working with a dozer and all
the noise, dust and falling trees that entails, limits your situational awareness to the immediate
surroundings. The dozer boss, operator and lowboy driver didnít know the details of
Squawboard Meadow down that road so they stayed in the parking area. The safety officer never
was aware of the road to Squawboard Meadow due to it being blocked while he was in the
parking area. Todd: And at some point in there, I resigned
myself to the fact that my fate was sealed. I was gonna be-I didnít know any place else
to go, I was going to have to ride this out in that open area that weíd bladed open.
I pulled my shelter out to the hard case was uh, ready to open it up if I needed to.
Thatís when things get kinda sketchy, because about this time, the safety officer yells
at me say hey, go down and get youíre truck. You can still get down there and get your
car. Which hadnít crossed my mind, and I look and ya, sure enough, itís cool enough.
So I go down and get my car and park somewhat close to where his is by the dozer.
Narrator: Due to the heat and blowing embers, the dozer operator deploys his shelter for
both himself and the lowboy driver, whoís left his shelter in his truck. As the perimeter
closer to the dozer starts burning, they move to the dozer blade for additional protection.
The shelter gets noticed and the rigs drive over to the dozer and the dozer operator and
lowboy driver are told to get in. A part of the shelter gets caught as the door of the
safety officerís rig is closed. And it rips away as they drive their 2 SUVs around in
the parking area, to avoid areas of heat. At one point, the dozer boss sees that the
front tire of the lowboy transport is on fire, but the surroundings are too hot at the time
to risk putting it out. Between waves of heat and smoke, they even try to move the dozer
away from the perimeter slash piles that are starting to burn, but the key is broken off
in the ignition. Todd: Itís starting to get hot because the
piles around that parking area are all burning. Iím done getting in and out of the car-weíre
gonna sit this out. Ya know, I might move a couple more places to try and find cooler
spots but weíre done messing around trying to protect equipment. Turned the air conditioning
up to ya know, turbo arctic blast and that car is still starting to get uncomfortable
inside from the heat. Itís getting hot enough to the point that Iím starting to smell the
off glass and the plastic in the car. Thatís about the time Iím starting to hear a little
bit of radio traffic about that road down to the Squawboard Meadow that we had opened.
Thereí still an effort to get us down there tied in with everyone else.
Jerran: Theyíd told me on the radio that they had everybody in their vehicles-the safety
officer told me that. So we kept talking to them, we got our vehicles backed down in there,
we backed up all the way down there, I honked my horn, I was talking to the safety officer,
we were finally able to talk them through-ya know Iím like okay, come left 10 feet, okay
come left 10 more feet, okay honk your horn, okay let me honk my horn. Okay, you see me?
Alright, straight ahead. Todd: Gerrish took off and went out, I do
remember him calling saying Iím clear and I shifted that car into gear and bajaed our
way through and plunged through that opening. There was fire on both piles on either side
of it and it was really hot. The thing that was going through my mind is,
was where the hell am I going now? Because I donít know whatís down this road. Is this
just leading me back into some other place? Am I going down a dead end road and Iím gonna
get stuck down here? Well the fears of not knowing where I was going were dispelled.
I looked at that wet meadow and okay, well I kinda wish Iíd have known this was down
here. Narrator: While the four stranded in the parking
area, the rest of the personnel reached the safety of Squawboard Meadow. They prepare
to fire off the edge, but it unnecessary as air attack directs type 1 helicopter in cooling
the road and hitting the flanks to protect the meadow and get the four out of the parking
area. Later, as things cool down somewhat, various personnel return to the parking area
and between waves of choking smoke, retrieve vehicles left during the evacuation, hotwired
the dozer to move it into the center, and put out spots on the lowboy trailers. The
lowboy transport closest to the edge only suffers some melted plastic, while the one
thatís tire caught fire, completely burns. After dark, all personnel convoy out to China
Springs Spike Camp for and After Action Review. Todd: Ya know, I got head down with that dozer
doing all that, that stuff and pushing that that side open, maybe looking at it from the
point of view of like Iím making my own safety zone or place that I can go. But that Salmon-Challis
country, that country is notorious for, for big fire runs when you least expect it.
Dan: Youíve got a over time, over plan, your time frames. Itís not like a STEX where you
can pick up a lowboy and drive it away. Its equipment thatís going to take a long time
to move, just make sure youíre planning for that. For me personally, donít ever miss
an opportunity to brief somebody. My pan to was to brief everybody all at once. I thought
I was going to have that time, then the fire-the situation switched and I didnít have that
time. And in doing that, I missed probably little times to just grab individuals. Most
of the people knew where they were going, the few people that didnít were probably
the few people that got stuck. Brian: For me itís like, donít call a safety
zone a safety zone until its designated a safety zone. And I feel like, and I donít
even know how it really got started that that was a safe zone but most people driving to
it, myself included, pictured that it was a safety zone. And then when you got there,
you made your own assessment. To me, it was obvious that it wasnít, but it still I was
still calling it a safe zone as a point of reference. Everybody was, um I think thatís
probably the bigger, or thatís one of the biggest contributing factors of people staying.
For me what I would do different is when I pulled up, it was obviously triage and fire,
engaging the fire is not an option. I was there to help these guys get people out of
the way and I briefed my crew on Squawboard Meadows, myself or one of my squad bosses
couldíve helped brief the other people. These guys were pretty busy-everybody was pretty
busy and just like Dan said, he wished he wouldíve briefed some of those folks that
stayed to follow us. I wish I wouldíve had one of my squad bosses do the same thing because
they probably had the most imte. Jerran: Ya know the main thing I think from
an Ops perspective, was making sure that everyone has all the information that they need. I
mean, I want to be able to walk up to anybody on the fireline wherever and say, whereís
your safety zone? How long does it take to get there? Okay, thatís cut off, where are
you going now? Ya know what I mean? I think I probably couldíve done maybe a better job-I
assumed probably a lot ya know, that Iíd told a few people where Squawboard was and
I figured a lot of people knew. And I guess another point is, uh why are we above ya know,
on a mid-slope road or a road thatís near the top of a ridge in the Salmon breaks at
1600, ya know at the end of August? With incoming resources, I think at a certain point in time,
ya know weíre always anxious to get resources here, get them plugged in, get them going-ya
know, I donít think itís wise to be travelling in hindsight, a road like that, uh with resources
that really have no idea of where things are at, so I think would definitely be more organized
and set-up uh, probably uh timeframes and parameters for uh moving new personnel in
and out of an area like that. Jeff: And in general, the trap I think we
all fell into, air attack included at least on my shift, was uh Iíve talked to you about
this is a little bit of passive leadership. Um, when I saw that parking area, I didnít
like it, but I didnít say anything. We let a few things go amongst each other and I think
itís just because of mutual respect and its and the uh positive outlook that a lot of
us had and the can-do attitude. I think itís a little bit of a trap that we fell in. Ya
know we all-I really enjoy getting credit for a job well done as uh, a firefighter or
a fire leadership position and we all do. Along with that, we must and we have, uh recognize
that uh there are times we must address our errors, or mistakes like you brought up and
we all brought up, our oversights and uh, we must address them like weíre doing here
for the upcoming firefighters and other fire leaders. Otherwise, the leadership trait of
trustworthiness will not be given back to us.