It wasn’t intended to be a tribute. But a day later, that is exactly what this edit became.
The original intention behind the video was to exhibit a burn out. In the middle of a historically disastrous wildfire season burning across the West, the fight has become about containment.
And containment is the main modus operandi of what a burn out is supposed to do: by setting a fire inside a controlled area, the firefighters hope to basically consume all the “fuel” between the control line and the wildfire in hopes of stopping it in its tracks.
These burn outs have entire communities working together, from fireman and volunteers to cowboys herding their cattle. YouTube user Wranglerstar — whose channel’s About section describes the channel as reflecting the experiences of a group of people (the Wranglerstar family) who decided to turn their backs on “comfortable city life and become modern day homesteaders” — wanted to show just how these containment operations are.
Unfortunately, amid the inspired and heroic efforts, there has also been loss, the most recent being the death of three firefighters who were driving a fire engine when it crashed. Flames from the imposing wildfire quickly engulfed them, killing all three.
“He is a fourth-generation firefighter,” Celeste Wheeler told CBS This Morning of her husband Rick, one of the three firefighters caught up in the tragic accident. “So it’s in his blood. As soon as he started working in wildland fire, he just loved it. Rick was good at it. He had that ability to think quickly on his feet, and I feel like he was not afraid of anything.”
Thank you, Rick. And thank you to all of you fighting these wildfires, as firefighters or volunteers. Our thoughts and well wishes go out to both the friends and families of the three firefighters who lost their lives, as well as EVERYONE affected by these wildfires. Stay safe out there.
