 Every fire has the potential to be a killer. I turned around and everything was orange. It was just really coming down on us. Nobody had any idea the amount of fire that would be coming up out of that hill. I was under a wave of fire. I was just hoping that I could outrun it. It was sheer panic. This one was so small, it didn't even appear funny. It was just basically going to be a little two-hour chore and back to the work center. And it was a day much like today. Timber Weller, a Florida firefighter, was in his work center when a call came in. Someone reported seeing flames in the woods near some homes. It was really a pretty nondescript low-activity fire. I reported to the dispatch center that I would, you know, I could handle it without backup. In Florida, it wasn't uncommon for a single tractor plow to be called in to control a small wildfire. Weller sized up what seemed to be a perfectly routine fire and began plowing a fire line. I hadn't been operating the tractor perhaps five minutes on the fire when I noticed the flame length began to increase and the fire really started to kick up. That wasn't particularly unusual for a fire to flare up and drop back down, but this one never dropped back down. Things began to go wrong, fast. And within a matter of seconds, the sky above me had already turned orange. My first thought was, you can't do that. I mean, a little two-foot flame in turkey oak fuel does not ignite the crowns of pine trees. It simply doesn't happen. But it did happen. A downdraft had struck, driving the flames 50 feet high and towards Weller at an extremely high rate of speed. He turned his tractor and made a run for it. The fire was moving so fast that almost as soon as I lifted the plow the flames were already coming over the treetops above me. When it became apparent that he couldn't outrun it, Weller looked for a clear spot to deploy his shelter, but he couldn't find one. His instincts then told him to run. His training, however, told him to stay put, that he'd be running right into the hot zone. Instead, Timber huddled into his cab, covered his face, and did the one thing that saved his life. I took a deep breath as the fire was getting ready to hit me. And because the fire was moving so fast, I was able to hold that breath long enough that the superheated gases had mostly passed by the time I inhaled again. Doctors gave him no chance to live. Thirteen surgeries later, he did survive. When someone's burned to the degree that I was, the 70%, they generally lose their ears, their nose, their eyebrows, their, you know, fingers, arms. I mean, I really didn't lose that much. I mean, there were a lot of skin, but none of the digits or appendages or anything like that. So for the amount of injury that I sustained, actually I came out of it pretty well. Even the most routine fire can go horribly wrong. Accidents can happen at any moment. Firefighters have a job to do, but that doesn't mean they have to endanger their lives recklessly. Everyone has to take responsibility for his or her own safety and accept that fire is dynamic and can kill in a heartbeat. Overcome the idea that it can't happen to you. You have to believe that it can't happen to you in order to get up and go to work every morning. But you also have to make a rational decision to accept that it may. It's happened to other people. It happens almost every year people get burned over or killed. So, again, it's an inherently dangerous business. If you keep fighting fire long enough, you're going to get into a sticky situation eventually. So, convince yourself that it can happen to you and then train from that perspective. Because Weller attempted to contain the fire alone, he was unable to employ some of the fundamental safety rules of LCES. A lookout watches for sudden changes in the weather or the fire's behavior. Maintaining clear, open communications is critical for alerting firefighters when changes occur. Pre-established escape routes provide a quick way out when things go wrong and a reachable safety zone gives the firefighter a place to wait out the blaze. If Timber Weller had been able to implement LCES, the outcome may have been different. Without landing in Northern California, a crew knew a fire was coming, had time to prepare, and it still went wrong. The crew was called to protect a house situated above a fire burning near the Stanislaus River. I was exhilarated that we were going to be fighting some fire and some good fire at that. I still didn't know what was going to be in store as far as the amount of fire. The crew had mitigated the structure several days before and now they held a meeting and set up a lookout and reconfirmed their escape routes and safety zone. Their game plan was to let the fire blow by while they protected the structure. What wasn't in the game plan was how fast and how much fire was coming. As the fire approached, their safety captain called out spots. I could see the fire starting to build below us. I stood on the deck and called it off about 1,000 increments as it came up. First it was one spot and then it was five spots and then the whole thing was on fire. It went from having a few seconds to spare to no time at all. I was standing in the driveway next to the engine and I turned around and everything was orange and realized that we were now experiencing air ignition. I didn't have time to be scared. There was just entirely too much to do. It was burning my ears and my nose through my protective equipment. And numerous spot fires everywhere on the structure and the litter around the structure and the trees above the structure started to go and then spot fires which pretty much closed off our escape route. The crew had designated an escape route that ran down the driveway past a propane tank. Spot fires soon heated up the tank. All of a sudden I hear this jet engine firing up and I come towards the front of the house to find out what it is This is the propane tank. It sounded as though you were at the airport standing next to the jet. It was that loud. The propane tank began venting its gas shooting flames high into the air. Their escape route was blocked. Propane tanks are just one of many man-made hazards that complicate work in the interface and must be figured into safety decision making. Electrical power lines might fall during a fire and also block escape routes or ignite engines parked beneath them. Common residential materials like vinyl siding and tar roofing and everyday chemicals such as pesticides can generate highly toxic smoke if involved in a fire. These hazards can be found everywhere behind the house, in sheds, fences, garages, even dog houses and in crowded residential areas the danger increases exponentially. The venting propane tank was only the beginning of the crew's problems. Their water supply ran out used up trying to cool the propane tank. With their escape route blocked the crew intended to take refuge in the engine but they had parked it next to a flammable fence and it caught fire. If you've ever heard an engine burn once the radio start going the sirens start going and it makes this god-awful sound the poor animal is dying to hear that thing crying its last breath and not being able to save it that's probably something that will carry with me for a long time. The crew maintained good communications between themselves but outside communications became compromised due to the lack of common frequencies and overloading of the command frequency. Their options were running out fast. It's more than just the engine being out of waters now what are we going to do? I explained it as like playing a game of cards I just kept dropping the cards out of my hand and couldn't pick them up. I was starting to question my own safety. The only option was to make the house their safety zone and defend it any way they could. In most cases entering a vulnerable or burning structure is not a recommended interface tactic. However, not saving a home contradicts what most firefighters instinctually feel to be their duty. Most firefighters want to save every home causing them to take risks they shouldn't take. Sometimes you have to abandon someone's burning home while it may be hard to do this no home is worth jeopardizing your life to save it. In the case of Dowd's landing protecting a vulnerable home put the crew at risk. Ironically the structure became their last ditch safety zone. Having a little trouble breathing everybody was but you can't take time out for that because there's other stuff going on. The structure's burning, you know forget about breathing go put the structure out. Our only way of getting out was keeping that house standing that was the only thing that was going to keep us alive. With their water gone they improvised ways to extinguish the spotting. We were now throwing cases of Gatorade and water onto the roof to pour it on anything that was burning. The deck is on fire somebody went out and stopped it out the roof is on fire somebody go out and tear off a rooftop. For three hours the crew put out spot fires they were lucky all of them escaped without injuries. The end result was the house still stands and the engine was gutted. The crew had implemented L C E S but things still went wrong was it because firefighting in the interface is inherently more complicated? What could have been done differently to change the outcome? I still see those flames in my mind stand in here today it's hard to describe to other people how big this fire was and how fast this fire was moving. In the Cerro Grande region of New Mexico a fire threatened the lives of Captain Robert Stibbard's crew their engine had been called in to help protect a threatened neighborhood. When we first got there we didn't know what the fire behavior was doing we couldn't see the main body of the fire we had large volumes of smoke blowing straight at us. Even though they couldn't see the fire his crew was prepared they had sized up the situation and decided to triage the structures and put out any spot fires but before they started they held a safety briefing. The safety briefing concentrated on crew integrity making sure the company officers knew where everybody was at we were adamant about having to look out we talked about the escape route where we were going to go where we were going to meet up we had constant communications with everybody in the crew throughout we had an accountability system we had secured a water supply While his crew went into defensive mode his lookout positioned himself to keep watch on the distant fire we had our lookout up the hill here straight up this way about a little over a quarter of a mile just over the ridge there the lookout couldn't see the fire but he could hear it the sound was intense he knew it was coming in a hurry so he radioed his crew when lieutenant boros radioed in it was all business we knew that we had to get out of there right then and there the lookouts warning gave them four minutes to execute their prearranged escape plan four minutes seems like a lot of time but it's not when you have that fire beaten down on you like that the crew hadn't noticed how much the winds had picked up suddenly the flames were reaching 120 feet in the air and crowning in fortunately stibbard had identified two streets as escape routes and a safety zone a quarter of a mile down the road as soon as everyone got the word they knew exactly where to go it was just a matter of getting there I couldn't get the trucks out of the way fast enough I couldn't get the people moved down the street fast enough I couldn't move fast enough myself I remember running down the streets looking back over my shoulders how high those flames were and how fast they were moving the crew raced down the street with the engines close behind I was thinking just get me there just get me to the end there and I don't think I ever ran that fast in my life they reached their safety zone in time and began a head count I realized where everyone was except for one piece of apparatus and one firefighter and for a couple of minutes there I was in sheer panic just trying to figure out where that firefighter was the crew had traded mobility for easy access to water by hooking up to hydrants was this the right decision? with the fire coming so fast they had no choice but to cut and run a water tender however was pinned in and couldn't escape the driver leapt from his truck and ran as fast as he could fortunately he made it in fact the entire crew survived because they had planned ahead and because they had communicated well without good communications the best laid plans can collapse in an instant some of the worst tragedies occur when communications break down if the lookout had hesitated to speak out if he had experienced any trouble with radio frequencies or if captain Stibbert hadn't conveyed his instructions quickly the crew would not have escaped in time these dangers magnify when firefighters unaccustomed to working together failed to take a few minutes to work out a system of talking to one another or making sure that radio frequencies are established and declared no one got burned no one got hurt we were very lucky you know our training paid off I mean without a lookout we would have been in trouble without having planned escape routes we would have been in trouble without having good communications we would have been in trouble fighting fire in the interface is a lot like running a marathon some fires may last for weeks and involve extended periods of waiting so your safety strategy must recognize that you need to preserve your energy for the long haul too often firefighters treat fires in the interface as emergencies so they rush to and from the fires and are killed in vehicle crashes or they dash in to save homes and are injured protecting structures that perhaps weren't worth saving in the first place in an interface fire it usually doesn't matter if it takes you a little longer to get there what does matter is that you take plenty of time to size up a situation and create a safety plan before making your first move from the moment you get the dispatch you should make sure that you proceed safely it's also important during down times to know how to rest without losing focus and I'll give you a sign into about 10 minutes the one time that you get tired or confused could be the one time that you'll need to react quickly and intelligently in order to save yourself to endure this marathon firefighters have to stay in good physical shape and know how to recognize the signs of stress when they occur many fatalities are caused by heart attacks and strokes proper mental and physical training goes a long way to eliminate accidents and health problems your equipment should also be geared for extended fights structural firefighters might show up in full turn out gear for an interface fire this equipment is far too cumbersome in the interface and has caused heat stress and exhaustion injuries which could have been avoided lightweight gear commonly used by wildland firefighters is better suited for interface conditions because it lets you maneuver easily over long periods of time the key is having the right equipment training and mindset that enable you to pace yourself and then move rapidly and intelligently when you have to everyone in these stories survived because they reacted quickly when it mattered most whether it was Timber Weller holding his breath for 45 seconds Robert Stibbard's cruise four minutes sprint to safety or the Dowd landing cruise three hours struggle to save their makeshift shelter these stories along with too many incidents of firefighter deaths and injuries underscore how firefighters must be prepared and always be mindful about what is going on around them in each story questions must be asked could these incidents have been avoided were the crews properly prepared and did they react correctly when things went wrong the same questions should also be asked every time you enter the interface are you fully aware of your situation and prepared for the unexpected thinking about and training for safety begins long before a fire ignites it involves learning lces fire orders and watch out guidelines until safety becomes second nature if you're just starting to question your safety when things go wrong then it's probably too late you can't eliminate all risk but you can put the odds in your favor you have to overcome that basic psychological defense of oh it's not going to happen to me you have to recognize that fire fighting is an inherently dangerous business our mistake was being too optimistic about what we could do and not gauging how fast the fire was moving the department lost you know this engine that I was responsible for I don't feel lucky at all I feel that we were fortunate enough to get out of their life the lookout saved our lives having quick escape routes saved our lives without them the fire would have