Fighting Fire With More Fire

Newsweek, September, 2000 by Donatella Lorch

For days the fire had been hiding, flames barely licking the ground. It was a slow, steady burn that sluggishly devoured less than 200 acres a day. The Arrowhead Hotshots, an elite team of 20 firefighters from northern California, laid their standard battle line on the edge of the fire, digging in along a creek. There was no warning when the dry winds shifted and started to gust. The Arrowheads on the creek bed first heard the roar of air, like a freight train, that rumbled across the ground. Five columns of fire were running at them from different directions. Powerful blasts of air blew hard hats off heads. The team retreated to a steep, rocky hillside where there was nothing to catch fire. For three hours they sat there in awe, unable to do anything but watch the fire as it...

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