There is a strange calm, coolness in the air amongst the crew. For the first time, we can see the flames. It’s licking, it’s rolling, it’s alive, it’s screaming at us! There’s a spot fire in the rock scree, just above us. And now it’s gray, here comes the flame again. It’s snowing
If I could finish off those moments, it would go something like this: It’s snowing fire. A snowstorm of burning red embers is falling on us. I brush red-hot embers from the back of my neck and hair. The noise and wind are so intense I can hear nothing from the crew. I unfold my shelter without thinking, and within seconds find myself curled in the fetal position, thinking, “Oh my God, how did this happen?” I began to hyperventilate, sucked in some hot air, felt like I was going to die, confronted death, argued with it over my life, heard screaming. I fought the urge to jump out of my shelter, and felt the winds trying to rip it off me. Then I felt as if I were being pelted by a thousand snowballs as a barrage of embers, broken tree branches and ash pelted the shelter. It came in several intense waves and at one point I thought surely I would be dead before this was all over. I thought about my family and friends and got lost momentarily in desperation. Then I got out my Leatherman, started digging a hole and focused on getting as low to the ground as possible to suck the cool air from the hole. This kept me focused until I heard the call to run for the creek. I stumbled with my shelter through the smoke and heat, jumped over a flaming log, and met my crew in the cold icy waters of the Chewuch River. We redeployed our shelters and spent the next 30 minutes up to our neck in those waters, not sure of what was happening all about us. I shared my tent with a fellow firefighter, and we spent most of the time embraced, assuring each other that we would survive this.
Eventually we were told to get onto the beach, where we had about one minute to feel safe. Suddenly, the loud boom of tires exploding met us, and we gazed at the civilians’ truck, which was engulfed in flames. The tires were exploding one by one. We all thought the truck was going to explode into us. We heard the breaking of a tree and watched half of a burning tree break and fall on top of the shelters we had just been deployed in. We backed into the waters of the creek, expecting the rest of the flaming tree to fall on us, and the truck to explode into us at any moment. Just when we thought the s– was really going to hit the fan, a truck with several firefighters showed up and yelled at us to get into the van, and get the hell out of there. They had logged out the road, and cleared a safe evacuation for us.
The four firefighters we left out there will forever be a part of us. I tell this story so the public can understand and empathize and so my fellow firefighters can better understand what they may have to confront. I plan on returning to my duties and fighting for more safety training so others don’t meet the same fate as Karen, Jessica, Tom and Devin.
