Up from the Ashes

Newly-released video footage shot by a Utah Department of Public Safety Aero Bureau helicopter crew captured the hoist rescues of two firefighters from the Cedar Knoll wildfire in the Beehive State’s Manti-La Sal National Forest.

Rescue crews were dispatched to the scene of the blaze when the aforementioned firefighters suffered heat-related exertion and dehydration while battling flames with temperatures in the mid-90s.

The video shows one of the firefighters being hoisted aboard the rescue helicopter on a stretcher. The second firefighter was lifted out of the inferno by a responding crew-member via the hoist.

According to Utah state fire officials, the two firefighters passed a night in an area hospital and were released on Tuesday, 04 July.

Utah County Fire Warden Garrett Nielsen set forth: "It's not an easy job. With the heat and the terrain, it can definitely be hard on us physically."

Mr. Nielsen explained conditions in the vicinity of a wildfire can quickly take a toll on firefighters carrying heavy loads of safety, survival, and firefighting gear, stating: "There's never a situation that there can't be an accident in our industry. It's a very dangerous job and, in reality, it's going to happen eventually to probably every one of us."

Mr. Nielsen added: "By September, October, you're typically worn down, especially if it's been a busy fire season.”

Nielsen conceded 2023’s wildfire season in Utah’s San Juan, Sanpete, Emery, Utah, Grand, Carbon, and Sevier counties—across which the Manti–La Sal National Forest sprawls—has thus-far been relatively light.

Nielsen expressed hopes his firefighters will reman healthy throughout the remainder of the dangerous and taxing summer fire season, declaring: "I don't love having fire in my home community, but it is part of our daily lives at this point."

FMI: https://firemarshal.utah.gov