Surviving a Wildfire! But If You Can't Escape, Part Four ©

 

 

This is the fourth article in a four article series, to read Part One, go HERE, for Part Two, click HERE, for Part Three, click HERE.  Additionally, this article assumes that you do not have, nor have you been trained in the use of, a USDA Forest Service Fire Shelter, and does not discuss the use of this device -- Author’s Note

 

But If You Can't Escape...

 

Okay, so you ignored the warnings, didn’t see the smoke, and were surprised by the flames...worse yet, you’re cut off from your escape route.  You’re trapped, now what?!

 

DO NOT PANIC

 

First off, DO NOT PANIC, stay calm.  Panicking will just get you dead.

 

Don’t run blindly!

 

Escape from the fire, if possible, but don’t run blindly.  If the flame
front is still far enough away, and an escape remains open, use it!  However, remember you won’t be able to outrun the flames, so don’t even try.  And if you are already trapped, or the flames are too close and moving too fast for you to escape, you are better off spending your remaining few seconds finding or preparing a shelter spot.

 

If escape is still possible, or you need to move to a safer spot, don’t try to outrun a fire by going uphill, head for the flanks of the fire.

 

If possible, escape into a cooled-off part of the burned-over area, a burned-over area is the safest place to be, during a forest fire.

 

Decide whether to dump your gear or not.  Carrying packs and other gear slows you down and increases your escape time.  Weigh your need for the gear in your pack, like water bottles, tools, extra clothes, which can protect you from the heat, etc., and your need for speed. 

 

The Krispy Kritter Klub

 

If you’ve waited until you were trapped, or until the flames of the forest fire were too close to escape from, then you are going to get burned, and it’s going to hurt a lot! 

 

The Krispy Kritter Klub is a club nobody wants to belong to, but right now, you’re going to have to choose between being a surviving member of the Krispy Kritter Klub or being granted membership, posthumously.  Either way you get to be a member, aren’t you lucky!

 

Forest fires produce superheated air, toxic gases, and smoke, all of these can quickly destroy your vulnerable lungs and airways, so your primary goal should be to always protect your airways. 

 

When considering whether to attempt escape or move to a better spot, remember your biggest weakness is your lungs and airways, and you will only be able to hold your breath for about 15 seconds, while running through the flames and heavy smoke.

 

Forest fires also produce a huge amount of radiant heat, and human skin is an almost perfect absorber of radiant heat absorbing nearly all it receives.  Temperatures as a flame front approaches, range from 500^o to 1,600^o F (260^o to 871^o C) and exposed skin will burn within 1 to 2 seconds, and skin covered with protective clothing will burn within 15 to 20 seconds.  Your nose, ears and fingers are especially vulnerable to being damaged by the heat, so keep them protected.

 

So, what do you do if cornered by a fire?

 

Find the safest spot possible

 

If you are cornered by a fire, find the safest place possible to shelter, as quickly as possible. 

 

Look for a body of water, a lake, a stream or a swamp and crouch down in the water.  Move away from any shoreline, overhead brush or trees.  Cover your head and any part of you that is above the water with extra, wet clothing or a wet blanket. 

 

Find a large or wide clearing, rocky outcropping, a large boulder, a road cut on the side of a hill, a ditch, a shallow depression, a dirt pile, the stump hole of an up-rooted trees, or anything else that will block radiant heat and is as

free as possible from dry, fast burning fuels.  Try to find an area covered only with light, fast burning fuels, as the fire will burn through them, and over you, more quickly than in slower burning, dense fuel area.

 

Shelter on the fire-side of a road cut.

 

If areas like this aren’t available, then find the most open area possible and scrape away any dry fuels to make your own clearing and fire shelter trench.  Scrape out a fire shelter trench, as wide as your body, down to the mineral soil, parallel to the flame-front or sideways to the slope of the hill.  Do not dig a trench pointing uphill, as that will channel wind and flames alongside your body.  Lying in this shelter trench will minimize the duration of the flames contact, keep the fire further away from you, and the mineral soil will keep your body much cooler than lying on a layer of insulating ground debris and pine needles would. 

 

Clear the edge of the shelter trench closest to the flame-front first, to create a fire break.  Because radiant heat transfer decreases inversely with the square of the distance from the fire, clear the ground, at least three feet wider (1 meter) on all sides around your shelter trench.  This will reduce the radiant heat transfer to about 11% of the amount received at the edge of the fire. 

 

Lay in the shelter trench, on your face, and try to keep from exposing your skin.  Wear gloves and pull shirt cuffs down around your wrists.  Turn your collar up and use handkerchiefs to protect your neck and ears.  Use extra clothing to cover any exposed skin or cover yourself with dirt or your pack.  Cover your ears with your hands and keep your elbows along your sides.  Keep your arms tight to your body, fingers together and legs touching.  Try to minimize the exposed surface area of your body.

 

Remember DRY heat is better than WET heat

Water is vital if you are trapped by a forest fire.  The most effective use of your water is to drink it.  Drink as much water as you can.  You must be well hydrated to be able to withstand the extreme temperatures and your body must be able to sweat.  If time permits, wet your clothing, but DO NOT wet the bandana or cloth that you will be breathing through, as the moisture from the wetted cloth lowers your lungs’ ability to withstand the heat and the extra moisture in the air slows evaporative cooling.  Wet clothing cannot ignite, and the wetness will delay fabric heating and charring. 

The coolest, freshest air is within inches of the ground, so stay face down in your shelter trench.  Breathe slowly through your mouth, covering your mouth with a bandana or other piece of dry cloth, to filter out smoke particles

 

To prevent panic practice “tactical breathing”, repeating the numbers silently in your head. 

 

The flame front will shake the ground, and sound like a freight train passing, the winds it creates will be raging.  It is going to be scary, and it is going to hurt, a lot!  So, be prepared for it and don’t jump up.  If you do, you will expose yourself to the flames and the superheated air, and you will die!

 

The temperature of the flame front will range from 500^o to 1,600^o F (260^o to 871^o C), the temperature at 18 inches (45 cm) above the ground, will be between 600^o to 900^o F (315^o to 482^o C), and the ground temperature will be only between 300^o to 500^o F (149^o to 260^o C).  So, stay close to the ground!

 

Once you commit to a fire shelter, STAY there, no matter how bad it gets, death is hovering just inches above the ground, waiting to engulf you if you panic and run.  The radiant heat above you will burn you instantly and the super-heated air and toxic fumes will destroy your lungs!

 

Motor vehicles as shelters

 

If you are trapped in your vehicle by a fast approaching flame front, look for ridges, rocky outcroppings, or wide spots in the road and park on the uphill side of it. 

 

If your vehicle is surrounded by light fast burning fuels, then stay in your vehicle.  Roll up the windows, close the air vents, lay down or crouch on the floor, and minimize any bare skin by covering yourself with blankets, extra clothes, floor mats, etc.  Drink as much water as you can, but DO NOT wet your clothes, because the humidity as they dry INSIDE the sheltering vehicle will reduce your ability to withstand extreme heat.  Remember DRY heat is better than WET heat.

 

If the vehicle is surrounded by heavy, slow burning fuels, your survival chances inside the vehicle are poor.  In long and sustained flame fronts, the cabs, tires and interiors absorb almost all the radiant heat and the plastics inside the car will melt and release toxic fumes, and the flames can cause the car to combust.  In this situation, before the flame front reaches you, get out of the vehicle and make your own clearing and shelter trench. 

 

Buildings as shelters

 

You can use wooden buildings as shelters, sheltering inside their interiors, only if they are surrounded by light, fast burning fuels.  If they are surrounded by heavy slow burning fuels, which will sustain a longer flame front, then sheltering inside them would be a poor choice.

 

A better choice would be to make your own clearing and shelter trench behind them, opposite the flame front, using them as a fire shield.

 

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “You Can Hear the Bastards Buzzin’...©, where we will talk about the most dangerous creature in living the wilds of North America and most of the rest of the world!

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

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