On June 7, 2011, two lookouts who had been observing a burnout operation on the Horseshoe 2 fire in southern Arizona had to quickly abandon their post when the fire spotted below them. They made a “rapid retreat” down a steep rocky chute, and after unsuccessfully trying to break into a house, broke into a second one where they took refuge and watched through the windows as the fire burned around them. One of the firefighters gained entry into the house by breaking a window with his ungloved hand, cutting his hand in the process, requiring stitches. His gloves were in his front pocket.

A review of the incident has been released. The review team used an interesting bit of technology to enhance the understanding of the entrapment — they created some graphics which can be viewed in Google Earth, but of course you need Google Earth to view them.