@A PersonOfInterest:Late summer, 1961. I was in Placer County, camped where the No. Fork of the American River and the No. Fork came together. Heard on the radio there was a fire over in El Dorado County. (this is in the Mother Lode country in CA)Having a good deal of experience at fighting wild fires. I left and thumbed a ride over to where the fire was , above the So. Fork of the American.Day one, they assigned me to lay out a route.for a bulldozer, which followed about fifty yards be hind me. We were working our way up a shallow canyon, when the wind changed and the fire came up the canyon behind us, fast. We had time to make a one and a half passes, then parked in the middle of where he had scraped. I think what saved us was the erratic winds that swirled and kept giving us some fresh air. Fortunately, there was no large trees or heavy brush where we were. The only way out was the way we came in, and there was a large unburnt area that we hadto go through, and we didn’t want to risk it. After a while that burned and we waited for it to cool off before we drove out on the dozer. All i had was some minor blister on my wrists, between the shirt sleeve and gloves when I tried to star a back fire, and the real one got there aat the same time. Day two, we were at the top of a very steep slope. I told the dozer guy to sit still while I tried to see if there was a way down for the bulldozer. The slope just got steeper and ithere was no chance for the dozer to work.I was standing there when the fire blew up suddenly right below me, and there was no way I could get up the slope before the fire got to me, but I tried. All on a sudden I got splashed with pink slurry fire retardant. When I looked up, I saw one of the torpedo planes above. I never did wash the slurry off my hard hat. Lots of scary, but no real damage done.
@A PersonOfInterest:Late summer, 1961. I was in Placer County, camped where the No. Fork of the American River and the No. Fork came together. Heard on the radio there was a fire over in El Dorado County. (this is in the Mother Lode country in CA)Having a good deal of experience at fighting wild fires. I left and thumbed a ride over to where the fire was , above the So. Fork of the American.Day one, they assigned me to lay out a route.for a bulldozer, which followed about fifty yards be hind me. We were working our way up a shallow canyon, when the wind changed and the fire came up the canyon behind us, fast. We had time to make a one and a half passes, then parked in the middle of where he had scraped. I think what saved us was the erratic winds that swirled and kept giving us some fresh air. Fortunately, there was no large trees or heavy brush where we were. The only way out was the way we came in, and there was a large unburnt area that we hadto go through, and we didn’t want to risk it. After a while that burned and we waited for it to cool off before we drove out on the dozer. All i had was some minor blister on my wrists, between the shirt sleeve and gloves when I tried to star a back fire, and the real one got there aat the same time. Day two, we were at the top of a very steep slope. I told the dozer guy to sit still while I tried to see if there was a way down for the bulldozer. The slope just got steeper and ithere was no chance for the dozer to work.I was standing there when the fire blew up suddenly right below me, and there was no way I could get up the slope before the fire got to me, but I tried. All on a sudden I got splashed with pink slurry fire retardant. When I looked up, I saw one of the torpedo planes above. I never did wash the slurry off my hard hat. Lots of scary, but no real damage done.