0:00:30.960,0:00:33.110 Speaker 1: It started approximately five o' clock in 0:00:33.110,0:00:34.180 the afternoon. 0:00:34.180,0:00:40.070 I was on my company in the city of Placentia and the fire, we were listening to it over 0:00:40.070,0:00:44.540 the radio and it sounded like it was bumping up against some homes, so they started launching 0:00:44.540,0:00:46.510 resources pretty quickly. 0:00:46.510,0:00:52.290 We got dispatched to the fire, to a strike team assignment- 0:00:52.290,0:00:55.210 Speaker 2: So we worked the entire night. 0:00:55.210,0:00:57.120 It was an exhausting night. 0:00:57.120,0:00:59.170 That morning it started right up. 0:00:59.170,0:01:05.250 That afternoon, we were along the 261 toll road mopping up, and there was some fire that 0:01:05.250,0:01:09.580 was creeping up along Santiago Canyon Rd. and resources were thin there. 0:01:09.580,0:01:14.640 Most of our resources were in the Portola and Foothill Ranch area. 0:01:14.640,0:01:19.620 We were sent that way and it was basically our strike team, was asked to go help out 0:01:19.620,0:01:20.620 a different division. 0:01:20.620,0:01:23.711 Speaker 1: So as we moved up the road here towards the 0:01:23.711,0:01:30.350 location here where we ultimately deployed our shelter, we came across the two-hand crews 0:01:30.350,0:01:33.420 doing a burnout operation. 0:01:33.420,0:01:35.680 They were trying to burn the eucalyptus away from the road. 0:01:35.680,0:01:41.310 There was a community behind us, homes that are in the interface. 0:01:41.310,0:01:42.810 It's a box-in canyon. 0:01:42.810,0:01:47.060 There was probably 2000 residents in there, so the priority was keep the fire on that 0:01:47.060,0:01:49.340 side of the road so that it doesn't impact that community. 0:01:49.340,0:01:53.360 Speaker 2: So we were staged in different areas, and 0:01:53.360,0:01:54.840 the fire, we noticed it. 0:01:54.840,0:01:57.119 The wind was in our favor. 0:01:57.119,0:01:58.800 It was blowing down. 0:01:58.800,0:02:02.740 It was a pretty long fire front too. 0:02:02.740,0:02:07.270 It got into some of these eucalyptus trees and we were watching, the fire was going straight 0:02:07.270,0:02:13.540 up, the wind was in our favor, and then all of a sudden we saw the wind shift and it spotted 0:02:13.540,0:02:14.540 over. 0:02:14.540,0:02:19.190 Speaker 3: So we immediately notified everybody, "Hey, 0:02:19.190,0:02:24.250 we've got a spot fire burning on the other side of the road," and we went to work, started 0:02:24.250,0:02:31.739 to pull off of our engine a 200 foot pre-connect, and within a few minutes we had another two 0:02:31.739,0:02:36.170 or three other engines with their crews coming to help support the hose line. 0:02:36.170,0:02:41.250 As we immediately got our hose line off the engine and we just started to get water going, 0:02:41.250,0:02:42.769 we hadn't even attacked the spot yet. 0:02:42.769,0:02:47.580 We were still probably 25, 30 feet from the spot, our hose blew. 0:02:47.580,0:02:52.709 As soon as we got near the fire, one of the guys hadn't put a wet line down enough and 0:02:52.709,0:02:57.170 we blew another hose, which allowed the fire to move a little farther up the hill and got 0:02:57.170,0:03:00.449 a little bigger and got a little more of a jump on us. 0:03:00.449,0:03:07.269 With that, we replaced that hose line and went up and now the fire had grown pretty 0:03:07.269,0:03:08.269 good now. 0:03:08.269,0:03:11.940 Suddenly, we had a little bit of wind influencing the fire and it was still moving up the hill. 0:03:11.940,0:03:15.690 We still felt like we had a pretty solid anchor. 0:03:15.690,0:03:20.420 We had a pretty good black area that we could work from, as we were moving up the hill. 0:03:20.420,0:03:23.990 We'd also had one of the other engines down below pull an explosion line 0:03:23.990,0:03:27.470 Speaker 1: Looked like an easy reach with the deck gUn. 0:03:27.470,0:03:33.050 We put water on it, we were like that much short of hitting it, and I could see all the 0:03:33.050,0:03:35.739 water running off the hill. 0:03:35.739,0:03:39.079 I instructed my guys to gear up, tool up, we were going to go on the hill and help Mitch 0:03:39.079,0:03:40.299 out the rest of the way. 0:03:40.299,0:03:42.770 Speaker 2: I had a conversation with [Doug Dodge 00:03:41], 0:03:42.770,0:03:46.609 he was basically going to be at the back of the hose lay as a look out. 0:03:46.609,0:03:51.630 I was going to be in the middle, and Mitch was in the front of the hose lay. 0:03:51.630,0:03:56.049 So we were spread out, the three captains with our crews, and we were just trying to 0:03:56.049,0:04:00.510 improve that line, trying to progress, and that fire was just getting bigger and bigger- 0:04:00.510,0:04:03.370 Speaker 1: So I continued following the hose line up 0:04:03.370,0:04:04.590 the hill. 0:04:04.590,0:04:12.340 I got to the top and there was a cluster of guys there with Mitch and the reserves from 0:04:12.340,0:04:14.150 station 14. 0:04:14.150,0:04:15.340 Everybody was kind of bunched up. 0:04:15.340,0:04:20.040 I was looking at the hose, it was on the ground, it was just kind of a spaghetti mess. 0:04:20.040,0:04:24.170 They had had some additional broken hose lines and Mitch was sorting it out. 0:04:24.170,0:04:30.009 It's about that time that the ground, people that were on the ground, started notifying 0:04:30.009,0:04:35.580 us that a spot had started underneath us in the ravine. 0:04:35.580,0:04:39.040 About that time, Mitch was ... They had sorted out the hose. 0:04:39.040,0:04:40.640 They were starting to flow water. 0:04:40.640,0:04:45.070 I turned around and watched the fire burn through our hose line. 0:04:45.070,0:04:48.580 I saw it, turned quickly enough to see whoever was on the nozzle. 0:04:48.580,0:04:49.860 I can't remember. 0:04:49.860,0:04:55.310 Watch it just go "Bloop," and I went, "We got problems." 0:04:55.310,0:04:58.580 I could hear them doing horn blasts. 0:04:58.580,0:05:02.950 The engineer on 22 that was working for Mitch was doing the horn blasts, emergency horn 0:05:02.950,0:05:04.199 blasts. 0:05:04.199,0:05:08.490 The hand crew, I could hear them pretty clearly from the road yelling at us, "Come down, come 0:05:08.490,0:05:09.490 down." 0:05:09.490,0:05:12.440 There was so much fire on the little goat trail that we came up, I said, "There's absolutely 0:05:12.440,0:05:14.310 no way we're going back down that way." 0:05:14.310,0:05:16.550 Speaker 3: Doug Dodge, one of the other captains came 0:05:16.550,0:05:22.889 up to me and informed me that we had multiple spot fires below and that our route back down 0:05:22.889,0:05:29.000 for escape, which I felt was our solid anchor point, had been lost and they weren't able 0:05:29.000,0:05:31.599 to control the spot fires below. 0:05:31.599,0:05:35.710 So we moved up the hill, still felt pretty comfortable that we were okay. 0:05:35.710,0:05:39.520 We still had an area with some green that I felt if we had to, we could come back down 0:05:39.520,0:05:42.440 and get back down to the road on that side. 0:05:42.440,0:05:46.389 As I looked, we started to have a spot fire in front of us. 0:05:46.389,0:05:51.039 We then all of a sudden looked and now our only avenue, I felt, was to go over to the 0:05:51.039,0:05:52.039 side. 0:05:52.039,0:05:53.669 Speaker 1: We were kind of up against the cut bank and 0:05:53.669,0:05:58.150 Mitch said, "I think we can go out to the other end here. 0:05:58.150,0:05:59.719 We can go through the green." 0:05:59.719,0:06:04.090 And I said, "Okay," and he kind of left to go take a recon of that. 0:06:04.090,0:06:07.780 I was kind of getting everything sorted, kind of getting bearings. 0:06:07.780,0:06:10.949 I'm looking down the cliff face and I could see fire on that. 0:06:10.949,0:06:16.120 I told the firefighters that were close to me to drop their packs and start raking it 0:06:16.120,0:06:18.169 out, take their hand tools and making the area bigger. 0:06:18.169,0:06:22.449 I kind of I guess in my mind already knew that we were going to stay where we were at. 0:06:22.449,0:06:27.169 Whether we got in the shelters or not, I knew we had nowhere to go. 0:06:27.169,0:06:31.719 Mitch had chased the spot up to the hill, so the spot had kind of grown and burned off 0:06:31.719,0:06:33.009 the top of the hill already. 0:06:33.009,0:06:36.620 It didn't burn it completely, it just burned off the grass, got it enough where it was 0:06:36.620,0:06:38.610 charred and the rocks were hot. 0:06:38.610,0:06:41.779 But there was manzanitas around us that was starting to light off. 0:06:41.779,0:06:46.379 Mitch came back and said, "You know, we got fire behind us but I think we can go that 0:06:46.379,0:06:47.379 way. 0:06:47.379,0:06:48.379 Or maybe we can go off the cliff edge." 0:06:48.379,0:06:51.159 I said, "We're not going down that cliff edge." 0:06:51.159,0:06:57.189 First off, I had put water on it with the monitor, so I knew how steep it was. 0:06:57.189,0:06:59.909 Mitch and I both kind of said, "Well, we got a lot of people." 0:06:59.909,0:07:02.289 I go, "Somebody's going to get hurt if we go down that way." 0:07:02.289,0:07:05.740 And I go, "Are we going to be able to get 12 people out that other way? 0:07:05.740,0:07:10.889 If it was you and me, I'm good to go, but there's a lot of people to move. 0:07:10.889,0:07:12.930 I think we're going to have to deploy." 0:07:12.930,0:07:18.150 It seems like a long time, but I know these decisions were happening fairly quickly. 0:07:18.150,0:07:21.930 Another company officer was standing next to us and I think when I said the word, "We're 0:07:21.930,0:07:25.710 going to have to deploy," some of the firefighters kind of clicked into that and I could see 0:07:25.710,0:07:27.999 them start coming out of the cases. 0:07:27.999,0:07:33.569 So the decision kind of got made and we said, "Yeah. 0:07:33.569,0:07:34.569 We're deploying." 0:07:34.569,0:07:36.690 Speaker 3: At first, I still didn't really believe it. 0:07:36.690,0:07:38.580 I still thought, "There's got to be other options. 0:07:38.580,0:07:40.789 We're right next to the road. 0:07:40.789,0:07:42.600 We're not that far into the green. 0:07:42.600,0:07:44.059 There's got to be another avenue to go down." 0:07:44.059,0:07:48.280 I walked the perimeter, looked at him, and we both came up with the decision there was 0:07:48.280,0:07:49.289 nothing else we could do. 0:07:49.289,0:07:51.809 Speaker 2: I remember one of the guys right off the bat 0:07:51.809,0:07:53.980 said, "Let's make a run for it." 0:07:53.980,0:07:57.319 And myself, and a number of other guys said, "No way. 0:07:57.319,0:07:58.319 We're staying right here." 0:07:58.319,0:07:59.849 There was nowhere to run. 0:07:59.849,0:08:04.530 You were all trying to just within seconds to come up with another plan, and there was 0:08:04.530,0:08:05.530 no other plan. 0:08:05.530,0:08:09.240 And the best thing we did was get into our shelters. 0:08:09.240,0:08:12.080 Speaker 3: The problem was, we were starting to get some 0:08:12.080,0:08:15.129 really big flame lengths that were starting to impinge. 0:08:15.129,0:08:18.379 So we started to move closer towards the cliff side. 0:08:18.379,0:08:21.060 We had everybody accounted for. 0:08:21.060,0:08:26.779 Basically, the guys did a semi-circle, feet facing towards the fire, each company officer 0:08:26.779,0:08:29.930 laid down as close as he could with his crew. 0:08:29.930,0:08:32.279 The deployment itself went smooth. 0:08:32.279,0:08:37.250 The hardest part was you could see that some of the guys were really really nervous. 0:08:37.250,0:08:41.260 I felt pretty comfortable that we had a large black area. 0:08:41.260,0:08:46.250 We had enough distance between the fuel that we were going to be okay, but if we didn't 0:08:46.250,0:08:48.970 deploy, that some guys were going to suffer some burns. 0:08:48.970,0:08:53.240 But the big thing was, a couple of guys calmed the guys down, said, "Hey, look you guys. 0:08:53.240,0:08:55.339 We got a good black area. 0:08:55.339,0:08:58.790 We got a lot of crews down below. 0:08:58.790,0:08:59.930 We have helicopters. 0:08:59.930,0:09:02.660 We have things here to come help us, but for the next few minutes, we're going to have 0:09:02.660,0:09:08.080 to sit tight and wait for basically help to arrive." 0:09:08.080,0:09:12.390 Speaker 4: Once you know that that's pretty much inevitable, 0:09:12.390,0:09:14.730 you start going through your training, at least I do. 0:09:14.730,0:09:18.700 Thinking about what I'd been taught regarding fire shelter deployment and what to do to 0:09:18.700,0:09:22.490 prepare the area that you're in, and then what to do to deploy that shelter. 0:09:22.490,0:09:24.530 When they said, "Okay, we're going to deploy. 0:09:24.530,0:09:28.150 Start looking for an area to deploy your shelter," I look around and it was all black, for the 0:09:28.150,0:09:29.150 most part. 0:09:29.150,0:09:32.050 There was still some stumps and some big twigs that were sticking out of the ground, and 0:09:32.050,0:09:35.690 a lot of rock, but there wasn't really a lot of fuel that I could see that was going to 0:09:35.690,0:09:37.430 burn if I put my shelter down on top of it. 0:09:37.430,0:09:41.650 But in any case, I still cleared away as much as I could and then moved away the rocks. 0:09:41.650,0:09:46.710 I threw a couple of those down the hill, as a few other people did, and then we got the 0:09:46.710,0:09:48.350 order to deploy. 0:09:48.350,0:09:55.321 It was pretty much just like you train, just pulled it out of the pouch and for me, it 0:09:55.321,0:09:57.260 performed exactly as I expected it to. 0:09:57.260,0:10:01.530 But I remember keeping a firm hold on it and then just like they taught us, kind of got 0:10:01.530,0:10:06.160 inside of it, dropped to my knees, made sure that everything was inside, held it down with 0:10:06.160,0:10:11.100 my lower legs and my forearms and just got all situated and made sure that nobody else 0:10:11.100,0:10:12.100 was right on top of us. 0:10:12.100,0:10:16.470 I know there were a lot of us in a ... It was big enough for all of us, but it was still 0:10:16.470,0:10:21.140 kind of a small area, so I remember people kind of laying up against you and you say, 0:10:21.140,0:10:22.590 "Hey, can you scoot that way a little bit? 0:10:22.590,0:10:23.590 Hey, I'll scoot this way." 0:10:23.590,0:10:26.960 Speaker 2: The ground had burned clean and it was a clean 0:10:26.960,0:10:29.980 burn through there. 0:10:29.980,0:10:31.060 Just instinct. 0:10:31.060,0:10:34.540 Those shelters came out, with good training. 0:10:34.540,0:10:38.430 I loved having the handles, it made it a lot easier, but it's still ... It took a little 0:10:38.430,0:10:39.620 bit to get it out. 0:10:39.620,0:10:41.280 So for that split second, it's like, "Come on. 0:10:41.280,0:10:42.280 Come on. 0:10:42.280,0:10:43.280 Come on." 0:10:43.280,0:10:44.280 Then the shelter came out. 0:10:44.280,0:10:47.620 Speaker 1: I got down on the ground and remembered taking 0:10:47.620,0:10:48.620 a look around. 0:10:48.620,0:10:52.800 Mitch and I were next to each other, kind of face-to-face, and went underneath the shelter. 0:10:52.800,0:10:56.390 I was kind of in a ... I had my legs pulled up to my chest. 0:10:56.390,0:11:00.020 I didn't have enough room to spread out and put my arms and hold all the corners down. 0:11:00.020,0:11:03.460 I was kind of laying on my side, so it was a little bit uncomfortable. 0:11:03.460,0:11:09.890 Speaker 3: Once we got inside the shelters, we designated 0:11:09.890,0:11:15.940 one person to be the communication with the strike team leader to let him know our status 0:11:15.940,0:11:20.470 and what was going on, and that ended up being me. 0:11:20.470,0:11:25.140 The big thing was, obviously we let them know, "Hey, we're deploying shelters. 0:11:25.140,0:11:26.140 Everybody's okay. 0:11:26.140,0:11:28.040 Everybody's accounted for." 0:11:28.040,0:11:31.750 We did have a little bit of communication problems with the radio inside the shelter. 0:11:31.750,0:11:36.390 I ended up having to take my radio and slide the antenna outside of the shelter to get 0:11:36.390,0:11:38.910 pretty clear communication. 0:11:38.910,0:11:42.400 We let him know, "Look, we're laying down right now. 0:11:42.400,0:11:43.790 Everything's good." 0:11:43.790,0:11:45.810 It was pretty hot inside the shelters. 0:11:45.810,0:11:49.160 A) Due to the fact that the area we were in had just burned. 0:11:49.160,0:11:52.770 There was a lot of cobblestone in the area too, so we were laying on a lot of hot rocks 0:11:52.770,0:11:55.020 which added to the heat in the shelter. 0:11:55.020,0:11:58.850 There was a few snags and some things laying on the ground that were still burning, so 0:11:58.850,0:12:02.790 some of the guys had pretty good smoke in their shelter. 0:12:02.790,0:12:06.230 It started to go on in duration as far as being in the shelter. 0:12:06.230,0:12:11.820 The heat did increase from the east side with all the fuel that we had burning, and you 0:12:11.820,0:12:13.310 could hear it burning and cracking. 0:12:13.310,0:12:16.650 Speaker 4: I hadn't expected to deploy a fire shelter 0:12:16.650,0:12:18.620 in the black, in an area that had just burned. 0:12:18.620,0:12:22.170 So I would say that there was some factors involved with that that I hadn't necessarily 0:12:22.170,0:12:23.970 anticipated. 0:12:23.970,0:12:27.010 One of them was, I'd say the biggest one, was the heat of the ground. 0:12:27.010,0:12:32.820 I hadn't expected the ground to be so hot when we decided to lay down on top of it, 0:12:32.820,0:12:39.750 so my knees, pretty much my knees down and my elbows, through my forearms, were hot. 0:12:39.750,0:12:43.340 Anything that had like a button or a zipper, anything that was metal, anything that was 0:12:43.340,0:12:44.890 close to the ground was hot. 0:12:44.890,0:12:50.130 So that made the biggest impression in my mind, was how hot it was inside, and how hot 0:12:50.130,0:12:51.290 the ground was. 0:12:51.290,0:12:56.300 I was sort of like a lizard on a hot rock, just trying to push myself off and have as 0:12:56.300,0:13:00.139 little of my body touching the ground as possible, but you can only do that for so long because 0:13:00.139,0:13:03.970 ... I forget exactly how long we were in there, but it was definitely longer than I could 0:13:03.970,0:13:07.120 keep my body off the ground. 0:13:07.120,0:13:11.010 There was that aspect that was a little uncomfortable, but it wasn't unbearable. 0:13:11.010,0:13:14.110 Of course, I'm not going to get out. 0:13:14.110,0:13:15.880 As much as I want to, I'm not going to get out. 0:13:15.880,0:13:18.810 You just kind of had to put up with that. 0:13:18.810,0:13:23.350 Second was the smokiness inside the shelter because everything had just burned. 0:13:23.350,0:13:25.940 There were little stumps and twigs and everything. 0:13:25.940,0:13:29.880 It was smoking inside the shelter and filling the shelter up with smoke. 0:13:29.880,0:13:35.170 That was another instance where I thought, "Well, I can just lift the corner of the shelter 0:13:35.170,0:13:38.640 and maybe get some fresh air," but I couldn't see. 0:13:38.640,0:13:40.640 I didn't want to check the conditions on my own. 0:13:40.640,0:13:46.040 I'm not claustrophobic at all, but I definitely remember thinking, "This is uncomfortable. 0:13:46.040,0:13:47.830 I don't like this at all. 0:13:47.830,0:13:49.390 I want to be out of here." 0:13:49.390,0:13:54.500 But again, you just revert back to the training and they tell you, "Resist all urges to get 0:13:54.500,0:13:55.770 out of your fire shelter." 0:13:55.770,0:14:00.790 Speaker 3: We sat tight, let the strike team leader know 0:14:00.790,0:14:05.200 that we weren't going to do anything until we were given the sign that it was all clear. 0:14:05.200,0:14:07.520 I communicated with him, "Hey, how's it looking over our head? 0:14:07.520,0:14:10.470 Do we still have a lot of fire up above us or around us?" 0:14:10.470,0:14:12.610 He said, "Yeah. 0:14:12.610,0:14:15.310 Sit tight, you've still got a lot of fire," and I said, "Look, we're not going to move 0:14:15.310,0:14:18.890 til you tell us it's safe to come out of the shelters." 0:14:18.890,0:14:21.990 So we sat for about 15 minutes inside the shelter. 0:14:21.990,0:14:27.910 At about 12 minutes, we heard one of our helicopters come and we heard the water drop right next 0:14:27.910,0:14:28.910 to us. 0:14:28.910,0:14:32.750 Immediately, you could feel everything cool down considerably with that first water drop. 0:14:32.750,0:14:36.650 Then we could hear the chainsaws down below with the hand crew, they're firing up chainsaws 0:14:36.650,0:14:39.810 to cut a line to come in to where we were. 0:14:39.810,0:14:44.120 That was reassuring knowing that they were coming up, those sounds. 0:14:44.120,0:14:48.230 Then the other fact, we had a second water drop and with that, the strike team leader 0:14:48.230,0:14:50.140 said, "Hey, you're clear." 0:14:50.140,0:14:53.990 Mitch had one guy come out of his shelter and take a look around. 0:14:53.990,0:14:58.890 I got up, took a look around, saw that we were okay and just about that time, guys started 0:14:58.890,0:15:02.780 to come out of their shelter and we had a hand crew coming up the hill and that was 0:15:02.780,0:15:03.780 pretty much the end of it. 0:15:03.780,0:15:08.831 All the guys came out, no injuries, no one even had any cuts or scrapes, and we were 0:15:08.831,0:15:14.750 taken down from there off the hill onto the roadside where they did an evaluation. 0:15:14.750,0:15:16.570 They had the medics come look at us. 0:15:16.570,0:15:21.740 They then took us by ambulance to our headquarters just to evaluate us and do a debriefing. 0:15:21.740,0:15:27.910 After the debriefing, we were taken to a hotel for the night, and then the next morning we 0:15:27.910,0:15:28.700 were back on the fire line.