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US Silverado Fire: Critically hurt Orange County fire fighters were trapped between two spot fires
Two Orange County fire fighters who were critically burned while battling the Silverado Fire in California on 26 October 2020, were setting backfires in extremely dangerous conditions at the time of the incident, according to a Green Sheet report summarising serious injuries on fire incidents from the Orange County Fire Authority. Investigators detailed how the two fire fighters were part of a team of eight who suddenly became trapped between two spot fires. It states that the fire fighters were endangered by unburned fuels, erratic winds and frequent spot fires while attempting to control the spread of a spot fire that had expanded from about 75 square feet to 10 000 square feet in a matter of seconds. The crew of eight fire fighters was working to slow the fire's path with hand tools, chainsaws, fire hoses and drip torches, which kept being extinguished by strong winds, prior to the burnover, according to the report. The fire fighters were positioned uphill of an ongoing ‘firing operation’ or a relatively small, defensive fire that crews use to burn vegetation and possibly alter the path of larger, uncontrolled wildfires. Crews had set the defensive fire at the bottom of a slope, in dry creek bed. The expectation was the fire would burn along the creek bed but also uphill where it would be stopped by a bulldozed containment line before reaching the fire fighters. The burnover occurred when a second spot fire ignited underneath the crew, overrunning them before they had time to deploy their fire shelters. The report states that the conditions in the area at the time of the incident pushed the speed at which the fire could spread to ‘historic levels’ and that this was the "main factor" that led the crew to become trapped by the second spot fire. Six of the fire fighters sustained minor heat injuries, while two, Fire fighters Dylan Van Iwaarden and Phi Le, suffered severe burns. Iwaarden and Le remain in critical condition more than five weeks after the burnover, Orange County Fire Authority spokeswoman, Colleen Windsor, said.
Source: Associated Press |
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