The Forgotten War

Fire and Death

While in the process of writing this book, a catastrophic event occurred in US firefighting history. An elite force of firefighters, nineteen in number (eighteen men and one woman), died while fighting a forest fire in Arizona. A wind shift placed this raging inferno head-on into this force. One TV announcer claimed the winds were gushing up to fifty miles per hour. Television programs showed viewers what these firefighters had to protect themselves. They lay flat on the ground and put this tentlike apparatus over them, which was probably made of a fire-retardant material, but this could not protect these heroes from thousand-degree temperatures and gusting winds, which turned this inferno similar to a flamethrower. As a firefighter, even though youve fought similar fires, many times you never take anything for granted. As you will see in this book, fires thought to be under control were turned into second and larger alarms. The red devil sometimes throws you a curve ball, and it can cost you your life and civilians lives. While you have this story fresh in your minds, say a prayer for these firefighters who got burned alive. And on the eighth day, God created firefighters.