Reserve 1994

Personnel on the Reserve Fire were Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management engines. The FS and BLM engine were firing along the northeast corner toward the northwest corner. About 5:00 p.m., as the crews were working west, the FS engine broke down. The BLM engine then took over the lead in firing the road. The FS crew felt that the BLM engine was firing too fast, and focused their attention on this event. There was some discussion among the FS crew and an effort made to slow the BLM engine down. Before this could happen, the wind shifted to the southeast and the fire began a hard run at the northwest corner. The BLM engine was ahead of the run and continued on and was not involved. The FS engine crew was caught on the road with a wide flame front approaching. The crew felt that there was not enough time to escape along the road in either direction and deployed their shelters on the roadbed. The flame front passed over the crew without any direct flame applied to any of the shelters. All shelters were in good shape following the deployment. After the flame front hit the road, the wind shifted once again and the event was over. Deployment lasted only a couple of minutes with no injuries to any of the three involved.