actually overcome by smoke and fire. and making a run for it isn t much better. you should not flee on foot. you most likely would be safer in a structure that would protect you for a matter of moments rather being in the direct line of the wildfire. that fire front will move over you very rapidly, and you have a better chance of survivability by putting yourself inside of a structure. the correct answer is, b, but if no structure is available, there s another option. the best sort of escape in a vehicle is to find some sort of open area that has a low fuel, that has some dirt around it, that does not have something that will burn. you certainly want to try to stay away from any trees. you want to try to get yourself as low to the ground as you possibly can, and hopefully that fire front will pass and you will be able to survive it. i hope she makes it out. in the chaos, eric and his brother lose contact with their family. panicked, they decide to stay in
if you re not prepared for it, if you re not trained for it, you have no choice but to panic. oh, my god. middletown, california, a normally quiet community of 1,300 residents, about 70 miles north of san francisco. that all changed on september 12th 2015. after months of unusually dry heat, an enormous wildfire erupts, sending 200-foot high flames racing toward the town. the trees and the topography and the type of material that was burned had not burned in many, many years, which contributed to the fast rate spread of flame. get in the car. 16-year-old eric marx was watching the inferno from his grandmother s house in middletown when suddenly i saw the fire jump the road so i told everyone let s go, let s go, let s go. go! with choking smoke closing in from all sides, eric s relatives take off in other vehicles while
of driving through an inferno. to increase your chances, should you, a, open your windows to prevent glass from shattering under high heat, b, keep the windows closed, or c, open the windows slightly, then cover them with any materials available? you shouldn t cover any vehicle with window coverings due to the fact that those are combustible materials, and those materials itself will start to catch fire just based on the radiated heat. and rolling down your windows will only let the elements in faster. so if you chose b, you made the correct decision. keep those windows closed. what you want to do is try to stay encapsulated inside that vehicle as best as you possibly can. it s imperative that you ensure that your windows are fully closed, that visibility is maintained. it s going to be difficult to see but what you need to do is slow down as best as you can and ensure you have space between you and possibly another vehicle in front of you. after losing track of their relatives
what i see is the kids, you know, with the car burning. i was panicking. i was shaking for the whole commotion that was happening, but just to think that i m going to lose them i was feeling numb, but i got out and ran to them. eric and his extended family make it out, but his grandmother s house is totally destroyed along with 60% of middletown s other homes. in the end, several firefighters suffered severe burns and four civilians lost their lives. i do think it s a miracle that we survived. it was the scariest thing of my life, and it always will be. nothing can top that. to avoid finding yourself in such a dire scenario, it s critical to always listen for evacuation orders and remember the following survival tips. if driving, keep headlights and hazard lights on and close your windows.
i hope she makes it out. in the chaos, eric and his brother lose contact with their family. panicked, they decide to stay in their car and try to reach the nearby highway, but it doesn t take long to realize their mistake. there was fire hitting the window, embers. you could barely see five feet in front of you even with the headlights. we were just driving. we were driving on what we thought the road was. [ honking ] the entire engine compartment caught on fire, the wheels caught on fire. our feet, we could feel the flames burning the metal and the plastic under the car. we could see the smoke coming up through the holes, the ventilation. it was just pouring out black smoke. you made a risky choice to stay in your car with the hope