I've been very fortunate in that the largest wildfire I've fought was only a couple hundred acres, was flat ground, and the winds were nearly calm. Wasn't even a need then for air support. But through training, I've learned the same exact things that GB is saying.
Paul, please take a few minutes to read this article. It's about a fire in 2013 that took the lives of 19 firefighters. There was one survivor out of that crew. One!! The difference between live and death is very often a single piece of equipment, or a single crew that is not where they are expected when expected. Here's the article:
Now, the one difference in this article and what we're talking about here is, I don't think these crews died specifically because their air support was not there. Sounds like they might have been working an area where air support was not foreseen, then conditions changed and they were overcome by fire. But make no mistake, I can find articles that specifically mention firefighters who died because air support could not be there when needed.
In ALL fire fighting, nobody ever goes in without a Plan of Attack. Command has to know what resources are available, and then distribute those resources so as to best fight the blaze. If any one of these resources becomes somehow incapacitated and doesn't show up, other crews can and have died! Same thing in structural - crews go into a building with a plan, but then something bad happens without warning. Maybe someone is storing illegal explosives, huge amounts of munitions, even meth labs! Suddenly, these firefighters who are inside a burning building suddenly have no way out. They can become disoriented, as walls that were once there as landmarks are now gone. The floor they just walked over may suddenly be missing.
And you also need to understand that real-world firefighting is NOTHING like it is on TV. If they tried to film a movie with real-world fire, there wouldn't be much to see. In Sillywood (ok, ok...Hollywood), they burn natural gas and LP gas. What smoke you see is coming from smoke generators. The actors are in about as much danger as they are when stepping out of their bathtub at home. It's a whole different ballgame out there!
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