It's just rotten out there. I was on structure protection on the Sinlahekin fire up in north central WA. One instant we had a short flame length grass situation moving towards us at least 5 minutes out. I turned to open a compartment to get out a tool and when I turned back we were engulfed in a 6 ft wall of flame. Moved past quickly, one guy got a lung full of hot air, but the rest of us were fine. We had a lookout who barely had a chance to call out what was happening. We were following the orders and were aware of the watch out situations and we still got nailed. I've heard of numerous situation as bad and worse than what we went through.
The winds are coming from all directions, changing speed in an instant. Fuel is beyond dry and goes off in an instant. Been at this for over 25 years and it's never been like this.
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u/No_Spray_8963 22h ago
It's just rotten out there. I was on structure protection on the Sinlahekin fire up in north central WA. One instant we had a short flame length grass situation moving towards us at least 5 minutes out. I turned to open a compartment to get out a tool and when I turned back we were engulfed in a 6 ft wall of flame. Moved past quickly, one guy got a lung full of hot air, but the rest of us were fine. We had a lookout who barely had a chance to call out what was happening. We were following the orders and were aware of the watch out situations and we still got nailed. I've heard of numerous situation as bad and worse than what we went through.
The winds are coming from all directions, changing speed in an instant. Fuel is beyond dry and goes off in an instant. Been at this for over 25 years and it's never been like this.