September 8, 2020 | 5:05 p.m. PDT
![Map of the Dolan Fire](https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Dolan-Fire.-2-am-PDT-September-8-2020.jpg)
Fifteen firefighters attempting to prevent a structure from burning in a California wildfire were entrapped and overrun by the fire, the U.S. Forest Service announced today.
Two firefighters were injured, one critically and the other seriously, the release said. Both patients were transported by Life Flight to Community Regional Hospital in Fresno.
(Update September 11, 2020: New information from the U.S. Forest Service is slightly different from what was originally released shortly after the incident. Those new details are in an article published Sept. 11 about another crew that had to deploy fire shelters.)
It occurred at the Dolan Fire at about 8:31 a.m., September 8, 26 air miles southeast of Big Sur.
The firefighters deployed the fire shelters they carry for this type of situation.
The Forest Service said the incident occurred while the personnel were defending the Nacimiento Station from the approaching fire.
The release from the Forest Service implied more than two of the 15 personnel may have been injured to some degree. Here is an excerpt:
A shelter deployment involving fifteen firefighters from the Dolan Fire occurred approximately at 0831 on Tuesday, Sept 8, 2020, in the vicinity of Nacimiento Station. These dedicated firefighters received injuries including burns and smoke inhalation while defending the Nacimiento Station on Dolan Fire on the Los Padres National Forest in California. Nacimiento Station was destroyed.
When a fixed wing aircraft mapped the Dolan Fire at 2 a.m. PDT September 8 about six hours before the incident, the fire was 74,591 acres, more than twice the size mapped the previous night when it was 36,213 acres. The heat sensing equipment detected intense heat at the fire’s edge at 2 a.m., 0.7 miles northwest of Nacimiento Station.
Fire shelters are small foldable pup tent-like fire resistant devices that a wildland firefighter can unfold and climb into if there is no option for escaping from an approaching inferno. Many firefighters have used the devices successfully, but others have been killed inside them.
Three days before, on September 5, three firefighters on the Bridger Foothills Fire northeast of Bozeman, Montana were forced to deploy and take refuge in their fire shelters when their safety became compromised by the proximity of the blaze, fire officials said.
![Nacimiento Station](https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Nacimiento-Station-sat-photo.jpg)
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Al and Tom.