Firefighter rescued by helicopter on Pole Creek Fire

Exciting stories were told this past month of personal experiences of hikers and others escaping the Pole Creek Fire that started on September 9 and burned 26,795 acres south of Sisters. Four cars were destroyed at the Pole Creek trailhead, several hikers barely escaped the flames in their car, and others were forced to take a 21-mile detour to the west side of the Three Sisters.

However, two firefighters had their own dangerous experience that ended with a dramatic rescue with one of them on the ground and another flying a helicopter.

The story is told in a Safecom Aviation Safety Communiqué report by the pilot. This report, while not an official investigative study, gathers information from those involved in an aviation mishap or incident for federal Department of Interior agencies and the U. S. Forest Service. While names of the two firefighters are not identified in the report, it reads like a script for an adventure movie.

On Friday, September 28 the pilot flying a Bell 205A1 helicopter was making water drops along three miles of fireline on the northeast-to-southwest edge of the Pole Creek Fire, guided by radio contact with a firefighter on the ground. Winds were light and the fire was not intense, burning in underbrush and bug-killed trees. However, within the hour fire activity picked up.

In his report, the pilot describes this change in fire behavior: "Towards the end of the first hour, a fire location spot approximately one-third of the way from the anchor point began to behave differently. The downed trees that had not burned were now igniting, and this heat was intense enough that it was actually torching heavily and burning the standing bug-killed trees that were already in the black."

With growing concern for the firefighter, the pilot contacted him and told him of the fire behavior, "mainly that there was the second fire line that was burning behind the first fire line, actually re-burning the black area, and with much more intensity. I think I used the term raging," the pilot wrote.

Monitoring the position of the firefighter on the ground, the pilot realized that smoke hid the growing threat from view by the firefighter.

Because the pilot had only 30 minutes of fuel left, he suggested that the man on the ground call for another helicopter to attack the growing fire.

"I urged him to start moving quickly north away from the fire, which he did, and when I circled again the fire was 50 percent closer to his position. The fire was moving in waves of heat toward his position: the air between them was actually shimmering! A 200-300 yard wide wall of trees would instantly ignite, and this in turn was igniting the next row of trees in front of it. My ground contact was centered in this wall, with the fingers on either side. I felt that he was in grave danger. The fire was moving much faster than he was: there was no way out to the southeast or to the northwest because he was in the center of a crescent between the two fingers of fire."

The pilot believed that moving back into the burned area would not be a safe move for the firefighter, and that he was now in the center of energy created by the fire.

"I felt that he was going to need to deploy his fire shelter and that I was going to be doing a water drop on his position. I started to pull away to get water but realized that the fire would have been upon him before I was able to make a trip."

In front of the firefighter was a small opening in the trees and the pilot determined that he could hover over it without damage to the helicopter. He knew that the firefighter was feeling the intense heat of the fire since he could feel it even in his helicopter. With few options, the pilot quickly acted, directing the firefighter to the opening. Carefully, he lowered the helicopter in the opening until the bucket was on the ground. "I strongly suggested that he climb into the bucket so I could haul him out."

The firefighter climbed into the bucket and wrapped his arms around the wires as the pilot slowly lifted the bucket. Once he was certain that his passenger was secure, he flew about a quarter mile to the north to an open area. He carefully lowered the bucket to the ground. The firefighter got out and walked to safety.

"I looked back at the spot where we had lifted out of and it was fully torched. I am not sure that even with a fire shelter deployed that the outcome would have been good," he wrote. "I am glad he had the courage to climb into the bucket and relieved that no harm came to my ground contact."

The Forest Service is reviewing the incident to see what can be learned to help firefighters in the future.

The use of helicopters with buckets to fight wildfires was first tested by the Los Angeles County Fire Department in 1957. Since then other agencies have developed the firefighting tool using all sizes of civilian and military aircraft. Bucket loads, usually of water picked up from natural lakes or containers, range from 250 to 3,000 gallons. Cables extending from 25 to 200 feet, the shorter the better for control, carry the buckets over the fire where the pilot uses electrical controls to cause the buckets to drop their load.