(somber music)
- [Narrator] Late on a July afternoon,
three engines and a 20-person hand crew
had paused burning off of a two-track road.
They had established a safe zone and a buffer
between themselves and the approaching fire,
but the sky started to get dark
and many started to feel uneasy
- [Narrator] Throughout the day,
air attack had communicated at regular intervals
that storm clouds were approaching the area,
but smoke and haze made it difficult
for ground resources to see the threatening clouds.
- [Narrator] The next sequence of events is unclear
because they happened in a matter of seconds.
Air attack declared over air to ground
that the wind had increased dramatically
and had shifted to a more northerly direction.
- [Firefighter] Bad wind, moving stuff.
- [Narrator] Was shouted over the radio.
Resources were called off the line,
but there wasn't even enough time for people
to take two or three steps
before an intense gust of wind hit.
- [Narrator] Some called it 60 miles per hour.
Others described ponderosas bent over like whip antennas.
- [Both] And everybody noted how, how the sky transitioned
from black to orange.
- [Narrator] Air attack watched a stand of trees ignite
and fire behavior rapidly increased
in the vicinity of the crews.
It was like the ignition of a propane barbecue
after many unsuccessful attempts of the igniter
- [Narrator] Resources slightly to the south
described looking in the direction of the other resources
and seeing a 100 to 200-foot-tall wave of fire
coming over the two-track and a giant fireball
- [Narrator] Total chaos ensued
as overwhelming convective heat blasted
through a 70-yard-wide area where the resources stood.
Firefighters were thrown to the ground
and attempted to curl up to protect themselves.
- [Narrator] A firefighter dropped his pack
and began to run.
- [Narrator] It wasn't my primary escape route.
It wasn't my secondary.
It was an emergency escape route.
I was running for my life and I thought I was going to die.
Another firefighter had the briefest moment
to think about deploying their shelter.
- [Narrator] But things happened so fast,
they barely had time to pick up a fallen firefighter
while being chased off the ridge
by a hanging wall of flames.
- [Narrator] The engines began to move down the two-track.
The doors were opening and closing
as firefighters played musical chairs
and attempted to get into any vehicle they could.
- [Narrator] After one crew member got in an engine,
then got out and into another engine,
then got back on the first engine,
the driver finally locked the firefighter
in the vehicle and headed out
- [Narrator] The line of engines proceeded,
but had to stop three times
to extinguish the gear that had ignited
on top of one of the engines.
The incident commander trainee
who was viewing the scene from a knob to the south.
- [Narrator] Heard screaming and absolute chaos
on the radio and called for radio silence.
- [Narrator] After the first of at least six
accountability checks, all personnel
were miraculously accounted for,
but several were badly burned.
All resources were ordered to pull out
and head to a nearby school for triage and medical care.
- [Narrator] Once at the school,
the crews prepared an enclosed UTV trailer
and the back of a truck for triage and medical care.
They compiled medical equipment
from five different trauma kits,
but this would prove to be insufficient
for the five injured patients.
- [Narrator] The patients kept coming
and they occupied all four corners of the trailer.
- [Narrator] Every square inch of the trailer was covered
with cut Nomex, medical equipment and gauze wrappers.
- [Narrator] The incident-within-an-incident commander
provided reports to dispatch.
For efficiency's sake,
he provided one complete medical incident report
and number the patients one through five
as he relayed their status to dispatch.
Ground ambulances eventually arrived
and departed for the local clinic.
- [Narrator] All resources pulled off the fire
for the night.
Many headed back to the local station,
which is adjacent to the airport.
Firefighters recalled how surreal it felt to listen
to air ambulances arrive and take their fellow firefighters
to the regional burn center.
One firefighter reflected.
(helicopter blades whirring)
- [Firefighter] Everybody on this district
was burned that night.