Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9 "It was July of 2015—three years ago," Eleanor began. Her eyes filled with a faraway look, like in her mind she was traveling back to that day. "A hiker had spotted a fire way up in the hills. She called 911, and they called us. In five minutes Lucas and the ground team were on board the helicopter—ten firefighters in all. I got them into

“那是2015年7月——三年前，”埃莉诺开始说。 她的眼睛里充满了遥远的神情，好像在她的脑海里回到了那一天。 “一个徒步旅行者在山上发现了一堆火。 她打了911，然后他们打给了我们。 五分钟后，卢卡斯和地面队员登上了直升机——总共十名消防员。 我让他们

the air and fifteen minutes later they were on the mountain, ready to go to work." Lucas picked up from there. "Our job on the ground is to try to contain the fire, stop it from spreading. But when we're way up in a forest or far from roads, we don't have water or hoses—we can't drive our tanker trucks into the wild, and there aren't any fire hydrants. "So we use chain saws and axes and saws to clear away trees and brush, scrape everything away down to the dirt. It's called building a fire line—a dirt path around the fire, maybe two or three feet wide." He picked up his fork again, and drew a circle around what was left of his rice and beans. "We're trying to take away the fuel the fire needs to spread. "A wildfire's like a hungry animal. It feeds itself on things that will burn—trees, brush… that's its fuel. Take away its fuel, and the fire will weaken, then starve."

空气一过，十五分钟后他们就到了山上，准备上班了。” 卢卡斯接的电话。 “我们在地面上的工作是试图控制火势，阻止火势蔓延。 但是当我们在森林里或者远离道路的地方，我们没有水或软管——我们不能把油罐车开到野外，也没有消防栓。 “所以我们用链锯、斧头和锯子来清理树木和刷子，把所有东西刮掉，直到泥土。 这叫做建立一条火线——一条围绕火堆的土路，大概两到三英尺宽。” 他又拿起叉子，在剩下的米饭和豆子周围画了一个圈。 “我们正试图拿走火势蔓延所需的燃料。 “野火就像一只饥饿的动物。 它以会燃烧的东西为食——树木、灌木……那是它的燃料。 拿走它的燃料，火就会变弱，然后饿死。”

Like that time at basketball practice, Josh thought, when I hadn't eaten breakfast. He ran himself so hard he almost fainted. Greg practically had to carry him off the court. "Most fires don't give us too much trouble," Lucas went on. "We put them out quickly. And at first, this River Complex Fire didn't worry us so much. Everything was calm. Then came the winds. Hot winds, very strong. They're called Santa Anas." "Diablo winds," Eleanor said softly. Josh shuddered. He knew from taking Spanish what diablo meant. Devil. "The winds whipped up the flames," Lucas said. "In ten minutes the fire had tripled in size. We could see it in the distance, that angry orange glow, getting bigger and brighter. The wind started to pick up big burning embers—chunks of wood and ash. These firebombs were landing all around us. I knew we had to get out of there, and quick.

就像那次篮球训练，乔希想，那时我还没吃早饭。 他跑得太用力了，差点晕倒。 格雷格几乎要把他抬出球场。 “大多数火灾不会给我们带来太多麻烦，”卢卡斯接着说。 “我们很快就把它们扑灭了。起初，这场河流复杂火灾并没有让我们太担心。 一切都很平静。然后刮起了风。 热风，非常强劲。他们叫圣安纳斯。” “恶魔般的风，”埃莉诺轻声说。 Josh战栗。他在西班牙语课上知道diablo是什么意思。 魔鬼。“风把火焰煽得更旺了，”卢卡斯说。 “不到十分钟，火势就扩大了两倍。 我们可以在远处看到它，那愤怒的橙色光芒，越来越大，越来越亮。 风开始卷起大块燃烧的余烬——大块的木头和灰烬。 这些燃烧弹落在我们周围。 我知道我们必须离开那里，而且要快。

We radioed for help, and Eleanor came to pick us up." Lucas's words were painting pictures in Josh's mind, pictures scarier than any video. He could see the flames. He could hear the thwack, thwack, thwack of the Huey helicopter and the roar of the wildfire. He could practically feel the hot wind blowing in his face. "The main fire was still about a half mile away. So I was able to land the Huey," Eleanor said. "Lucas and the team got on board. But now the winds were blowing at sixty, seventy miles per hour. Not even the Huey can take off in winds like that. The flames were closing in all around us. We were trapped." Josh's heart hammered. He remembered when he and Mom were riding bikes one time, and a car swerved and hit Mom. She fell off her bike and badly hurt her leg. Josh had never felt so scared! But even if he multiplied that fear by ten, he didn't

我们用无线电求救，埃莉诺来接我们。” 卢卡斯的话在乔什的脑海里描绘着画面，比任何视频都可怕的画面。 他能看到火焰。他能听到休伊直升机的轰鸣声和野火的轰鸣声。 他几乎能感觉到热风吹在脸上。 “大火仍在半英里之外。 所以我能让休伊着陆，”埃莉诺说。 卢卡斯和他的团队同意了。 但是现在风以每小时六七十英里的速度刮着。 即使是休伊号也不能在这样的大风中起飞。 火焰包围了我们。 我们被困住了。”乔希的心怦怦直跳。 他记得有一次他和妈妈骑自行车，一辆车突然转向，撞到了妈妈。 她从自行车上摔下来，腿受了重伤。 乔什从来没有这么害怕过！但即使他把恐惧放大十倍，他也没有

think it would come close to how it would feel to be in the middle of a wildfire—with no escape. Lucas's voice dropped down. "In a wildfire like that, all you want to do is run. But when the flames are moving that fast, you usually can't outrun them. You have to try to find a big open space without trees or anything that can burn, like a ball field, or a big parking lot—" "Or a river," Holly interrupted. Eleanor smiled at Holly. "Smart kid. A wide river can work like a fire line. But even that isn't always safe if the fires are too big and the winds are too strong. I've seen flames leap across a river. And the smoke can get so thick…" "So what can you do?" Josh asked. "At that point," Lucas said, "we knew the Huey would be lost. And our only hope was to use our fire shelters. We each keep one strapped to our backpacks, folded in a rectangle cube the size of a shoebox."

我想这就像身处野火之中，无处可逃一样。 卢卡斯的声音低了下来。 “在这样的野火中，你唯一想做的就是逃跑。 但当火焰移动得如此之快时，你通常无法逃脱。 你必须找一个没有树木或任何可以燃烧的东西的大空地，比如球场，或者大停车场——”“或者一条河，”霍莉打断了他的话。 埃莉诺对霍莉笑了笑。“聪明的孩子。 一条宽阔的河流可以起到火线的作用。 但如果火灾太大，风太强，即使这样也不总是安全的。 我见过火焰跃过河流。 烟会变得很浓……”“那你能怎么办呢？”杰克问。 “那时，”卢卡斯说，“我们知道‘休伊’号要完蛋了。 我们唯一的希望就是利用我们的防火掩体。 我们每个人都把它绑在背包里，折叠成一个鞋盒大小的长方形立方体。”

He told them how the fire shelters looked like very light sleeping bags or small thin tents. But they were made from fabric that could resist heat up to eight hundred degrees. "You wrap the fire shelter around you, drop onto the ground on your stomach, and hold it tight so the fire doesn't rip it off when it goes over you." Josh's mouth dropped open. "So you lie there… inside the fire?" He squirmed a little in his chair. "That's right," Eleanor said. "And the fire shelters work?" Mom asked. "Most times," Lucas said. "But you have to make sure you're in a spot that's clean—just dirt or rock, no plants or grass around you that can burn. Because if the fire gets underneath you, the shelter will melt. Or even with just a small gap, the wind will tear off the shelter, and the hot gases…" Everyone was very quiet for a moment.

他告诉他们，火棚看起来像非常轻的睡袋或薄的小帐篷。 但它们是由能抵抗高达800度高温的织物制成的。 “你把防火罩包裹起来，趴在地上，紧紧抓住它，这样火在烧到你身上时就不会把它烧掉。” 乔希张大了嘴。 “所以你躺在那里……在火里？”他在椅子上微微扭动了一下。 “没错，”埃莉诺说。 “防火掩体有用吗？”母亲问。 “大多数时候，”卢卡斯说。“但你必须确保你在一个干净的地方——只有泥土或岩石，周围没有可以燃烧的植物或草。 因为如果火烧到你下面，庇护所就会融化。 或者只要有一个小缝隙，风就会把遮蔽物刮掉，热气就会……”大家都沉默了一会儿。