Pod Insights Real Survival Stories Wrong Side of the Fire: Rangers in Peril… About this episode As a wildfire breaks out in Minnesota, a ranger crew is dispatched to clear the forest of members of the public. But unbeknownst to Todd Stefanic and his colleagues, this will rapidly become the largest and fastest-moving blaze in state history. Penned in on all sides, Todd must dodge the flames amidst the woodland’s waterways. But will these lakes and rivers provide a safe haven? Or condemn them to a watery grave?
A Noiser production, written by Joe Viner.
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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1:02 John Hopkins? It's mid-afternoon, Saturday, September 10, 2011.
1:09 John Hopkins? Todd Stefanic and Chris Kinney trudge down a hiking trail in northern Minnesota.
1:15 John Hopkins? The two men are wilderness rangers here in the Superior National Forest, a 3-million-acre expanse of dense woodland, pristine lakes, and cold-water streams.
1:26 John Hopkins? As they pick their way along the trail, Todd and Chris keep an eye out for members of the public.
1:33 John Hopkins? All day, the rangers have been patrolling the forest, warning campers and hikers about a wildfire burning nearby.
1:41 John Hopkins? With the wind pushing the flames from west to east, the rangers are advising the public to move north, out of harm's way.
1:49 John Hopkins? Todd glances up above the tree line. Off in the distance to the west, a thick column of dark, gray smoke spirals up into the sky.
2:00 John Hopkins? According to the latest reports, the fire is still four days away from reaching this part of the forest. Even so, Todd watches the column closely as they walk. As long as they can still see it, they can monitor its movement. But as they continue up the trail, conditions suddenly shift.
2:21 Speaker 03 The color just changed to this yellow, smoky, like the column had laid over a little bit, so it wasn't going straight up anymore. It was actually affecting us, the smoke coming through the trees.
2:35 John Hopkins? It happens in a flash. The sky turns the color of copper, and the air becomes coarse and scratchy to breathe.
2:43 John Hopkins? With a sinking feeling, Todd squints up beyond the tops of the pines. The reports were wrong. The fire is right on top of them.
2:56 John Hopkins? And then the wind changes direction. All day, it's been blowing from west to east, pushing the fire along with it. Now abruptly, it switches, with gusts ripping from east to west, back towards the fire.
3:12 Speaker 03 I knew what that meant. That is, the fire sucking in oxygen, it's an indraft, and that means you're too damn close to the fire. And not just too damn close, we were on the wrong side of the fire.
3:36 John Hopkins? Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations, people suddenly forced to fight for their lives.
3:58 John Hopkins? In this episode, we meet 42-year-old wilderness ranger Todd Stefanic. In September 2011, as a wildfire breaks out in the Superior National Forest, Todd is part of a public safety crew tasked with clearing the area of members of the public. But unbeknownst to Todd and his colleagues, what starts off as an ordinary wildfire will rapidly become the largest and fastest-moving blaze in state history.
4:24 Speaker 03 That was the moment that it was like, oh, it is that bad. This isn't just us, and we're not overreacting. It really is that bad.
4:34 John Hopkins? With flames closing in on all sides, Todd and his fellow rangers will have no choice but to seek refuge in one of the forest's many lakes. But will this provide a safe haven or condemn them to a watery grave?
4:48 Speaker 03 You can duck under the water all you want. Eventually, you've got to come up and take a breath, and then you're going to be breathing in superheated gases, and it will fry your lungs, and that's game over.
4:59 John Hopkins? I'm John Hopkins. From Noiser, this is Real Survival Stories.
5:30 John Hopkins? It's late summer 2011 in Cook, Minnesota. Inside La Croix District Ranger Office, Todd Stefanic sits at his desk, typing up a report on the environmental impact of logging in the area.
5:43 John Hopkins? Todd takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes. He's been staring at his computer screen for hours. Through the open window, he can hear the comings and goings of the car dealership next door. He yawns and reaches for his rapidly cooling coffee.
6:03 John Hopkins? Todd has been stationed here in Cook for six years, working as part of a team of rangers to protect and maintain the Superior National Forest on the U.S.-Canadian border.
6:14 John Hopkins? Devoting his career to environmental stewardship felt like an obvious choice. Growing up in rural Wisconsin, he developed a deep and lasting connection to the natural world.
6:25 Speaker 03 My love of the outdoors started when I was a kid. We did a lot of canoeing, there's a lot of canoeing opportunities in Wisconsin, a lot of rivers, a lot of fishing. That was my cup of tea, that's what I liked to be doing in my free time. And so I thought, hey, I should make a career out of this. Did not want to end up in a career where I sat in an eight-by-eight cubicle and stared at a computer.
6:50 John Hopkins? After finishing college, Todd left Wisconsin and headed west, taking jobs on wildlife refuges in Colorado and California.
6:59 Speaker 03 I loved to be in the mountains, just hiking and fishing and maybe walking the dogs, whatever it is. There's something good for the soul to have mountains in your backyard.
7:14 John Hopkins? Six years ago, he and his wife decided to start a family. So they left California and moved back to the Midwest to be closer to Todd's parents. Todd took up his current posting as a district ranger for the Superior National Forest in Cook, Minnesota, where there are more dollar stores than mountains. He missed the California scenery, but he soon got used to the flat landscape of this part of the world, the pine trees, the lakes. He got used to the mosquitoes in the summer and to shoveling snow in the winter.
7:46 John Hopkins? Some things, however, Todd can't get used to, like the increasingly desk-bound nature of his job.
7:54 Speaker 03 I had gone back to Minnesota because of the proximity to family, but I found myself for the first time in my career doing what I didn't want to do. I was sitting in an eight by eight cubicle writing NEPA documents for logging essentially. So I would write these expansive documents about the adverse effects of what we're going to do. It wasn't about doing good things for the environment anymore. It was just they have a legal requirement to disclose the adverse effects of what we're going to do. So it was not the most enjoyable time in my career.
8:30 John Hopkins? This is what he swore would never happen, spending his nine to five chained to a desk. Then one day in early September, Todd's district supervisor calls him and his partner, Chris Kinney, into his office.
8:44 John Hopkins? The supervisor explains that they're putting together a team of rangers to head out into the Boundary Waters canoe area, a stretch of wilderness within the Superior National Forest, popular with tourists.
8:57 John Hopkins? The team's job is to clear the trails, lakes, and campsites of members of the public amid warnings of an advancing wildfire. Todd has heard reports of this blaze dubbed the Pagami Creek wildfire. It was sparked by a lightning strike a couple of weeks ago, and it's been burning ever since, fueled by the hot, windy conditions and the countless acres of dry, brittle brush.
9:22 John Hopkins? Attempts to contain the blaze have been unsuccessful, hence the need to organize a public safety team.
9:28 Speaker 03 That's kind of why you jumped at opportunities to get back in the field and to kind of how I found myself as a public safety crew member on this fire because there was calling for volunteers and I was like, please get me away from this desk. I'll go out on an eight day stint into the wilderness. Hell yeah.
9:48 John Hopkins? A few days later, on the morning of Saturday, September the 10th, Todd and Chris are driving to the Eastern Ranger District Office in the town of Ely. There, they will link up with the rest of their team before setting out on their eight-day mission.
10:05 John Hopkins? Todd rolls down the window and breathes the fresh pine-scented air. Even with the high winds, the fire is still several days west of their location. They probably won't even see it.
10:19 John Hopkins? On the backseat of the truck are backpacks loaded with gear and provisions. Everything they will need for eight days of honest work outdoors. Far, far away from their desks. Todd smiles. This is more like it.
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11:34 John Hopkins? Todd and Chris load equipment in their canoe. Beside them, the lake glints in the mid-morning sun. Pine, fir, and spruce trees crowd the banks. Flashes of autumnal red and orange appear among the evergreens. The changing leaves are a reminder that, despite the unseasonal warmth, fall is approaching after a long, hot summer.
11:57 John Hopkins? As Chris and Todd climb into the canoe and push off, spirits are high.
12:06 Speaker 03 We thought we were just going for a fun eight-day wilderness trip. Because that's what we were told to prepare for, eight days. So we got, you know, supplies and camping and food for eight days in our canoe. So this was gonna be fun. This is gonna be a chance to see a part of the Superior National Forest I've never been in.
12:25 John Hopkins? The Boundary Waters canoe area is a 1.1 million acre network of lakes, rivers, and forest trails. Some of the region's thousands of lakes are connected by streams. Others are divided by land, and canoeists must portage the gap, that is, carry their canoe between the water. As part of the public safety crew, Todd and Chris have teamed up with six other rangers from various forest districts. The team has been split into pairs, each given a different assignment.
12:56 John Hopkins? Todd and Chris are tasked with paddling across an area of three lakes, simply called Lakes One, Two, and Three, then leaving their canoe to hike south along the Powar Trail, advising any members of the public they meet to head north.
13:11 John Hopkins? It may seem a simple plan, but there are some red flags. Todd and Chris are being asked to cover a distance of 11 miles in less than a day. Meanwhile, the fire will be approaching from the west, potentially cutting off their route back to camp.
13:28 John Hopkins? Though Todd holds a Forest Service red card, proof of his basic wildfire training, neither he, Chris, nor anyone on the public safety crew is equipped to actively fight this blaze.
13:41 Speaker 03 But whatever, we're supposed to be so far ahead of the fire, it's irrelevant. Worst-case scenario, we're four days away from the fire, hitting Lake Three anyway. So like, whatever, I'm just out here to go paddle in the wilderness and get some OT, right? Don't think much of it.
14:02 John Hopkins? Todd and Chris paddle all morning. Occasionally, they see members of the public in lakeside campsites: elderly couples, families with kids, ordinary folk out enjoying the last warm days of summer. Todd and Chris call out from their canoe, advising them to pack up and make their way north. They reassure the public, repeating information provided by their supervisors, that the fire is still some distance away to the west, that this is just a precaution.
14:32 John Hopkins? At one stage, Todd and Chris come ashore to portage between Lakes One and Two.
14:39 John Hopkins? As they're carrying their canoe through the trees, they become aware of some commotion further along the trail. Moments later, a team of fully-kitted-out firefighters jog past them. They're using hoses to douse the undergrowth in an attempt to prevent the spread of the blaze.
14:58 John Hopkins? Todd and Chris watch on with growing unease.
15:02 John Hopkins? The firefighters' protective clothing and equipment contrasts starkly with their own simple canvas ranger's uniforms, let alone members of the public in casual holiday wear. Something doesn't seem right.
15:17 Speaker 03 I'm like, what in the hell is this? They're in full nomads wetting this portage down, you know, ready with tools and they know how to cope with the fire while other just members of the public canoe in with grandma in shorts and flip-flops. So more red flags are going off.
15:37 John Hopkins? Just how serious is this situation? The presence of these firefighters hints that the danger may be more immediate than they've been led to believe. Still, they press on, following the orders they've been given.
15:50 John Hopkins? Several hours later, Todd and Chris leave their canoe on the banks of Lake Three. They shoulder their packs and set off on foot down the pow-wow trail.
16:00 John Hopkins? The rangers only encounter a couple of hikers along the way, but they keep going, checking their watches periodically as they venture further south.
16:13 John Hopkins? Eventually, they decide they've gone far enough. It's mid-afternoon. They need to leave themselves enough time to safely reach their designated campsite on the shore of Lake Three.
16:24 John Hopkins? They turn around and retrace their steps back up the trail.
16:29 John Hopkins? Several miles away to the west, a huge column of smoke is visible above the tree line. Todd keeps an eye on it. As long as they can still see this colossal plume of ash, they can track the fire's progress. But as the afternoon wears on, conditions change around them. A sepia haze tinges the sky. The breeze picks up, carrying with it a distinctive smell of wood smoke and burning leaves.
16:58 John Hopkins? When Todd looks up, he can no longer see the smoke column.
17:03 John Hopkins? And then...
17:05 Speaker 03 It took thirty seconds maybe where it stopped blowing, and it was dead calm. And then it started back up again, but the wind was going in the opposite direction, from east to west. And having some experience with fire in my earlier days, I knew what that meant. That is, the fire sucking in oxygen, it's an indraft. And that means you're too damn close to the fire. And not just too damn close, we were on the wrong side of the fire.
17:33 John Hopkins? Todd and Chris pick up the pace, each stride injected with new urgency. They decide to radio across to the IC, the Incident Command Station, to ask for an update on the location and status of the fire.
17:47 John Hopkins? No dice. They're too far south, out of range of the IC repeater. With no other option, Todd switches to the Fernburg repeater, the main radio tower designated for firefighting crews.
18:00 John Hopkins? This time, he does get through, but he doesn't receive the guidance he's looking for.
18:09 Speaker 03 Instead of them being useful and helpful in giving us an update on the fire, they told us to get off the Fernburg repeater, which I just couldn't understand for the life of me. I was incensed. I tried to take the radio away from my partner and read him the riot act. He wouldn't let me have the radio. But I had some early years in fire and that's, you don't do that. You don't abandon your folks in the field.
18:36 John Hopkins? Emergencies like this require cooperation and communication. Right now, they're receiving neither. Still, Todd can't afford to lose his cool. He must remain calm and focused. The fire is closing in fast now, gaining ground.
18:54 Speaker 03 So from that point on, back to where we were double timing it and even, you know, running at times, running, then maybe slow down, catch your breath and run some more. And until we got back to Lake Three and met up with the other team that had gone in the other direction down the Powaw Trail. And they brought more bad news.
19:14 John Hopkins? Apparently, there are tourists camped on the shore of Horseshoe Lake, a couple of kilometers east of their current location, right in the path of the advancing fire. As one of the strongest paddlers in the team, Todd and another ranger, Tom, rush over to Horseshoe Lake, where they canoe out to the campers who are oblivious to the impending danger.
19:34 Speaker 03 Me and Tom basically paddled out around to where these campers were and they were in no big hurry. And I told them, I said, "We gotta go, the fire is coming." And the woman, she says, "Yeah, we're just packing up and I'm gonna filter water and then we'll go." And that's when the pleasant ranger disappeared. And I said, "No, you don't understand. You grab your stuff, get in your canoe, you're following us now."
20:03 John Hopkins? For the rest of the afternoon, Todd and his fellow rangers patrolled the lake and surrounding trails.
20:11 John Hopkins? By sundown, they returned to the north shore of Lake Free. With a body of water separating them from the fire, this should be a safe place to camp. They set up their tents and hunker down for the night, exhausted after a long, difficult day. As Todd lies in his sleeping bag, the wind whistling through the trees, he broods on the day's events.
20:35 John Hopkins? A combination of flawed planning and poor communication left them vulnerable out there in the forest, cut off from radio contact with incident command. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. But this fire appears to be developing at a far greater rate than they had been led to believe. And if today's events are anything to go by, there are surely more difficult days ahead.
20:59 Speaker 03 This wasn't a one-day-oh, everything-hit-the-fan event. This thing was just a recipe for disaster from day one.
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23:14 John Hopkins? It's Monday morning. Todd and Chris paddle east in their canoe.
23:20 John Hopkins? Weak sunlight trickles down through the sooty, yellow haze.
23:26 John Hopkins? It's the start of Todd's third day in the forest. Yesterday, he and his fellow rangers continued patrolling the lakes and trails, successfully evacuating over 80 people from harm's way.
23:39 John Hopkins? But with the wind continuously switching direction and changing speed, monitoring the progress of the fire has been extremely difficult.
23:47 Speaker 03 Sometimes we have to visit people two and three times, and they're like, "Where do you want us to go? You've moved us from there to this side of the lake. Now you want us to go to the other lake."
23:57 John Hopkins? Now, the incident command has relayed a new directive. The plan has changed. Instead of merely relocating the public, they are now enforcing hard closures, instructing everyone to leave the forest and head back to their vehicles.
24:14 John Hopkins? Right now, Todd and Chris are paddling to Lake Insula, one of the largest lakes in the area, where they will join fellow rangers Nancy and Andrea. Together, the team will work to clear the lake, making sure it's fully evacuated and closed off to the public.
24:30 John Hopkins? According to new reports, the fire is a couple of days away, burning steadily to the west.
24:37 John Hopkins? Soon, Todd and Chris reach a narrow spit of land separating Hudson Lake from Lake Insula. They see Nancy and Andrea's canoe on the bank. They must have set off to investigate the area on foot.
24:54 John Hopkins? Todd and Chris begin down the trail, carrying their canoe over their heads. After a short walk, they reach the shore of Lake Insula, where Nancy and Andrea are waiting for them. They stop to discuss next steps.
25:07 Speaker 03 And that is when things start to really go south. Because as we're standing there talking, the sky gets yellow at first, then orange, and starts to darken, and then I hear it. I hear the fire.
25:26 Speaker 03 And I said, "We shouldn't be hearing the fire. We should be days ahead of the fire. This is not good."
25:33 John Hopkins? A sense of disbelief breaks out among the rangers. Could that really be the fire they're hearing? It's supposed to be days away. But Todd trusts his gut.
25:45 Speaker 03 And I'm like, "No, guys, I know what the fire sounds like. That's the fire." And I made some smart-ass comment like, "You think the forest just got a new waterfall? That is the fire. You two need to return, cross the portage, get your canoe, and we need to get the heck out of here."
26:05 John Hopkins? Eventually, Todd gets his message across. They quickly formulate a plan.
26:11 John Hopkins? While Nancy and Andrea fetch their canoe, Chris will head to a patch of elevated ground to try and get some radio signal. They need an update on the fire's location. Todd meanwhile will sit tight and wait with their canoe.
26:25 John Hopkins? The other three run off, leaving Todd alone, surveying their surroundings. He can spot a potential problem.
26:35 John Hopkins? To reach open water from this bank, they will first need to navigate a long, narrow channel. If the fire catches up with them while they're still paddling down this stretch of water, they won't stand a chance.
26:48 Speaker 03 You can duck under the water all you want. Eventually, you gotta come up and take a breath, and then you're gonna be breathing in superheated gases, and it will fry your lungs, and that's game over.
26:59 Speaker 03 So I'm sitting there, waiting, and it's taking forever. The longest moments of my life, felt like hours.
27:06 John Hopkins? Thick smog blots out the sun, casting an eerie twilight over the area.
27:13 John Hopkins? The stiff easterly wind carries the sharp smell of burning leaves and scorched timber. Todd taps his foot and peers down the trail. Where are they?
27:24 Speaker 03 Conditions got bad. The fire was loud and getting louder, orange, dark, smoky.
27:33 Speaker 03 And eventually, after those longest minutes of my life, they returned and we got in and we pushed the heck off and started paddling for our lives.
27:47 John Hopkins? Todd, Chris, Andrea and Nancy push off from the shore, gliding swiftly through the narrow channel. In the space of just a few moments, the situation has gone from code orange to code red. Their focus has shifted now, from protecting the public to saving themselves.
28:05 John Hopkins? With the fire closing in, Todd and the others paddle frantically, racing through the narrow waterway toward the relative safety of the open lake.
28:14 John Hopkins? Over their shoulders, flames hungrily devour the dense brush that lines the banks. The heat sears the backs of the ranges as they struggle forward.
28:25 Speaker 03 We have quite a ways to go through this narrow channel before it gets to anything that I would consider survivable. It's several hundred yards until we can sort of turn right, turn east into the more larger part of Lake Insela, which we thought is where we were going to be safe.
28:49 John Hopkins? The muscles in Todd's arms burn as he paddles aggressively. It feels like any moment the fire may swallow them in this claustrophobic alleyway of water.
29:00 John Hopkins? Eventually, blistered and breathless, they sail through the mouth of the channel and into the open water of the lake. But as they leave the shelter of the trees behind, the wind intensifies.
29:13 Speaker 03 Unfortunately, we hit that larger open water and realized we can't hardly even control our canoes. We're facing forty, fifty mile an hour fire-generated winds.
29:30 John Hopkins? Waves kraszają przez borych na ich kanuach, jakby tylko dotarły do środka Pacifica. Tylko utrzymywanie ich wersel wstecz staje się wyzwaniem, który nie może się skończyć.
29:42 John Hopkins? Todd patrzy na prawą rękę. Wschodni bok ośrodku wody jest wypełniony wodą, solidną ścianą ciepła i smutku. Zabudzające emery stoją przez powietrze jak tracą. Smutki, wytwarzone przez silny wiatr, wyrzucają bezprzeznanie z jednej isla na następną, wyrzucając w wodne ścieżki z alarmową rychlost.
30:03 Speaker 03 Wschód południowy Insula jest teraz tylko orzechowana, i mamy się wypłacać z bronią. Słyszę, że klikam z mojego kielpa. Mogę je usłyszeć, kiedy wsteczam na samochód lub w samochodzie, który wyrzuca wodę na boryk.
30:21 John Hopkins? Smutek wyciaga się przez wodę, czyniąc ją coraz trudniej do widzenia.
30:26 John Hopkins? Zaraz, krzykł karty radi.
30:31 John Hopkins? To jest kolejne parę rangers z grupy bezpieczeństwa publicznego, Naomi i Nancy, druga Nancy. Przestrzegały zachodnie części Insula przez noc, a teraz, jak Todd i inne, próbują dotrzeć do środka wody, walczą przeciwko wiatru i wodzie.
30:48 John Hopkins? Todd szukuje cieni smutku, próbując uzyskać oczy na Naomi i Nancy. Ten sytuacja szybko spiraluje z kontrolą. Będą wszystkim bezpieczniejsi, jeśli się wstawią razem.
30:59 Speaker 03 I na pewno, światło, smutek wyciagało się. Widzieliśmy przez wodę w południu i zobaczyliśmy kanu, z żółtym sztuką jednego z nich. Więc wiemy, gdzie są. A potem, przestało się. Zostaliśmy, i słyszałem na radi, że zniszczyli swoje ciało i idą w wodę.
31:22 John Hopkins? Wodę powinna być bezpieczna. To jest jedna z pierwszych lekcji, które nauczyłeś się w czasie treningi województwa w Superiornej National Forest. Że niezależnie od tego, jak źle się stanie na陆, możesz zawsze dotrzeć do bezpieczeństwa podczas padełka do centrum wody.
31:39 John Hopkins? But this fire is torching the rulebook. Its unprecedented size and speed have rendered every strategy, every procedure redundant.
31:48 Speaker 03 That was probably the peak of my fear for my life because I'm like, that was the moment that it was like, oh, it is that bad. This isn't just us and we're not overreacting. It really is that bad.
32:09 John Hopkins? Todd and Chris struggle on, trying to stick close to Andrea and Nancy, but the thick smoke makes navigating near impossible.
32:18 Speaker 03 At this point, it got black. And I mean, black.
32:24 Speaker 03 This isn't like we went outside at 1:00 in the morning.
32:29 Speaker 03 I mean, nothing. I never experienced black like this before. I reached around, get in my pack and get my headlamp and realized I can't see Chris in the back of my canoe. That's how black it is.
32:44 John Hopkins? Tears stream from his eyes as he squints into the darkness. Nancy and Andrea know these lakes better than Todd and Chris do. They need to stick with them. But through all this acrid smog, Todd can barely see his own hand in front of his face.
33:01 John Hopkins? And then, up ahead in the distance, he spots a tiny, dim light: Andrea's head torch.
33:08 Speaker 03 Andrea became my hero because she had a brilliant idea. She took her headlamp and she spun it around to face backwards. And that gave us this little dot of white in the distance to follow. And then we just started paddling for all we were worth towards that dot.
33:30 John Hopkins? Todd and Chris heave their way to Nancy and Andrea's canoe.
33:35 John Hopkins? As they pull up alongside them, a sudden gap in the smoke reveals an island a short distance away. It's a small, rocky outcrop with very little vegetation for the fire to feed on. Over the roar of the wind and the flames, the four rangers confer. Should they continue trying to evade the fire on the lake, or try their luck on the island?
33:56 Speaker 03 Trying to outrun this thing isn't happening, so making a stand on an island seemed...I mean, you can't say unanimous because we couldn't hardly talk to each other over the noise of the fire, but it was a consensus, I guess. Nobody was like, "Oh, we should get in the canoes and keep going." It was like, "This is as good as it's gonna get."
34:18 John Hopkins? The island seems like the lesser of the two evils, and so the four rangers paddle towards it and drag their canoes onto the shingle beach.
34:27 John Hopkins? It turns out, conditions are no better here than on the water. The air is thick with swirling embers, whipping around like a fiery blizzard. The wind howls with such force that staying on their feet is nearly impossible.
34:43 John Hopkins? But at least, they can stick together here.
34:46 John Hopkins? The rangers drop to their knees and cover their mouths with their hands, their voices barely carrying above the gale.
34:54 John Hopkins? They have now reached a critical juncture. One piece of mandatory equipment that all the rangers are carrying is a fire shelter, a tent-like structure made of aluminium foil, designed to withstand temperatures of 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, for up to a minute.
35:11 John Hopkins? For Todd and his fellow rangers, choosing when to deploy their fire shelters is a delicate matter.
35:18 Speaker 03 There used to be a stigma associated with deploying a fire shelter, especially if it turned out you didn't need to, and they're trying to get, they have been for years, decades, probably, trying to get away from there being that stigma and just view it as a tool. It's another tool, and why the hell wouldn't you use every tool in your arsenal?
35:39 John Hopkins? Still, the other rangers don't look convinced. There is indeed a stigma surrounding the deployment of fire shelters. It's seen as a last resort, and deploying too early indicates poor judgment and overreaction, even negligence.
35:55 John Hopkins? But Todd is insistent.
35:58 Speaker 03 And I looked around at everybody's and I said, wait a minute, guys. This is where we've decided to make our stand, right? We're all on our knees right now. Why? Because it's hard to stand. This wind will knock you over. Do you want to wait till the winds are 80 miles an hour to try to get in these things? And then there was like a consensus, nodding heads, looking at me going, yeah, that's pretty smart. We should maybe get in these things.
36:24 John Hopkins? As the spare brush on the island burns, the air heats up around them. Soon, breathing will become deadly as their scorched wind pipes begin to blister and swell. The rangers erect their fire shelters and crawl in. The relief is instantaneous. The protection from the fumes and the superheated air allows Todd to breathe and calm his nerves. From inside his aluminium foil cocoon, you can hear Chris sending out an emergency radio message.
36:58 Speaker 03 Chris is the one person who had an extended antenna. The rest of us just had regular antennas on our radios. But he thought, well, he'll, he'll send out one message here, just in case. He said a message to the effect that this is, you know, who we are. We're public safety crew and we are on Lake Inselo and we have deployed fire shelters.
37:27 John Hopkins? It's 45 minutes later. Todd lies flat on the ground. Occasionally, he calls out words of encouragement to the other rangers. Their voices drift back, muffled and distorted, but resolute. Gradually, the roar of the inferno fades. With no more fuel to feed upon, the flames dwindle and die. Tentatively, Todd lifts the flap and peers outside.
37:56 John Hopkins? The air is still thick with smoky haze. But through the fog, Todd can make out the scorched remains of the forest. The towering pines reduced to splintered, blackened stumps.
38:09 John Hopkins? After emerging from their shelters, conversation immediately turns to Nancy and Naomi, the two rangers who abandoned their canoe in the lake.
38:18 Speaker 03 Chris really wanted to jump in a canoe and go look for Nancy and Naomi. And I was, like, holding his shirt back, saying, "No, no, no. Look at these white caps, it's still not safe." And I didn't voice it, I didn't want to voice it. But really, my argument was, "Chris, you're not looking for our friends. This is a body recovery operation at this point. You'd not go out there and risk another life."
38:43 John Hopkins? Though he isn't explicit, Todd manages to get his point across. It's still too windy to risk paddling back out onto the lake. The water is still too wild. They need to wait for conditions to calm down.
38:57 John Hopkins? In the meantime, they start shouting from the island, calling out their colleagues' names.
39:03 John Hopkins? Their voices echo across the water, swallowed by the gales. There is a stomach-twisting silence.
39:12 John Hopkins? Before.
39:14 Speaker 03 Lo and behold, we heard yells back. So we knew somebody's alive.
39:21 John Hopkins? As soon as it's safe, they paddle out and bring Nancy and Naomi back to the island. The exhausted, bedraggled pair recount their harrowing ordeal. After bailing from their canoe, the two rangers attempted to escape the intense heat by treading water in their life jackets. They even deployed their fire shelters in the lake. A desperate, unprecedented move.
39:46 John Hopkins? But the wind kept blowing the aluminium foil lining across their mouths, threatening to suffocate them. This, combined with the discomfort of being submerged in cold water, forced them into another bold decision. They swam for shore, deciding to take their chances on a narrow spit of rocks. With trees surrounding the rocks, the outcome could have been disastrous, were it not for an extraordinary stroke of luck.
40:15 Speaker 03 One of the most shocking miraculous things from this whole incident is that if you look at a map of the burn scar after the fire, there is no green on that map save for 10 or 20 trees right next to that spit of rocks where they etched up. For some reason, that little piece, it didn't burn to the water's edge. I'll never know why, but that's where they landed and that's why they survived.
40:48 John Hopkins? It's about an hour later. Todd sits in his canoe paddling across the south shore of Lake Insula. He and Chris are on their way back to gather up some of the gear abandoned by Nancy and Naomi.
41:02 John Hopkins? The forest is entirely silent.
41:06 John Hopkins? Normally this place is alive with birdsong, but not today.
41:11 John Hopkins? As their canoe glides over the now calm water, Todd and Chris come across a macabre spectacle.
41:19 Speaker 03 When we went to try to recover gear, I remember seeing the dead birds lapping up against the shore, the birds that couldn't escape. That's how fast the fire was going.
41:31 Speaker 03 Chris and Naomi both recount, just before it got super dark, they both recount seeing bats in the sky. So the bats too were trying to escape when the heat and smoke got too much. All the trees along the shore, when we were trying to pick up gear, they were all laid flat, pointing east. So the fire burned them up and the winds just knocked them all over. So every tree in the forest was pointing east. It was kind of surreal.
42:01 John Hopkins? Todd and Chris float through this apocalyptic terrain.
42:06 John Hopkins? After recovering the gear, they return to their island where they and the four other rangers set up camp for the night.
42:18 John Hopkins? By now, the public safety team has managed to make contact with their supervisor, who has offered to dispatch a float plane to pick them up and bring them back to civilization.
42:28 John Hopkins? But the rangers refused. They should use the plane to scour the forest for stranded civilians. They'll manage for one more night.
42:39 John Hopkins? As evening falls, the group uses the few scraps of unburnt foliage to light a campfire.
42:46 John Hopkins? Todd reaches into his backpack and pulls out a bottle of rum.
42:51 John Hopkins? He had intended the booze to last them the full eight days. But by the time the campfire is burnt out several hours later, the bottle's empty.
43:01 Speaker 03 I think it was therapeutic. We sat around the fire. Nobody really wanted to go to sleep. We're running on pure adrenaline still, right? And we just talked, went through all the course of events that had happened since we put in that day. And then it just turned into a laughing, joking session around the fire till people were tired enough to crawl in tents.
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44:31 John Hopkins? It's the following morning.
44:34 John Hopkins? Todd and his five fellow rangers stand on the shoreline, watching the float plane skim across the surface of the lake.
44:42 John Hopkins? Todd pushes his spectacles up to the bridge of his nose.
44:47 John Hopkins? After the chaos of the past few days, he has plenty of choice words for the people in charge of this wildfire response. However, when they reach the district office, the tone struck by those in charge is anything but apologetic.
45:03 Speaker 03 We were picked up by the float plane and flown back to Ely, the hangar there at Ely, where we were then put upstairs above the hangar for a sort of a debriefing. Unfortunately, a debriefing and a finger pointing session. The people in charge blame us for doing something wrong instead of like, you know, "Hey, does anybody need to go get looked at at the clinic? How you feeling? How's your breathing? Anybody have any injuries?" No, it was more of a, "We really effed up and were worried the hammer's gonna come down on us." So, yeah, it was kinda ugly.
45:45 John Hopkins? This all sets the tone for the official incident report, which will, in Todd's view, omit several key details about how this response was managed from the start.
45:56 John Hopkins? Despite that, Todd doesn't want to apportion blame. When dealing with a wildfire of unparalleled proportions, it's inevitable that mistakes will occur.
46:07 Speaker 03 This was an unprecedented fire event. It was the biggest, fastest-moving fire in recorded Minnesota history, okay? So, it went from 11,000 acres at around noon that day to 89,000 acres by that afternoon. I could tell you that everybody in a position of management was gone within three months. There was a little bit of fallout, but it was mostly moved people around.
46:38 John Hopkins? Still, there are some silver linings.
46:42 John Hopkins? Following the Pagami Creek wildfire, various insights from Todd and the other rangers' experiences were used to shape a new and improved wildfire response protocol.
46:53 Speaker 03 They don't operate public safety as this special, different unit anymore that reports to somebody back in the office. They now are part of the fire organization and report to whoever, you know, the section chief of whatever section of the fire they're in. Those are all good things that they learned from this incident.
47:16 John Hopkins? As for Todd, he didn't stick around in the Forest Service for much longer. In fact, on the very same day that they were picked up and flown out from Lake Insula, he returned to his desk to find an answerphone message waiting for him.
47:30 Speaker 03 When I got back to my office later that day, evening, still sooty and in my fire clothes, there was a message on my phone requesting an interview for this place, Craters of the Moon. And I'd applied for a lot of places out west. I literally was going, Craters of the what? What did I apply for? And I called the guy back, said, can I like have a weekend or a few days before we schedule an interview? Because I don't know if I told him or not, but I was like, I'm not ready to talk about anything. Just went through something pretty traumatic. But following a week, I had that interview and I took the job. Like, get me the hell out of here.
48:15 John Hopkins? Within a few weeks, Todd and his family had left Minnesota and moved back out west. These days, he's a wildlife biologist at the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in Idaho. He still spends some time sitting behind a desk, but at least, when he looks through his office window now, he can see mountains.
48:36 Speaker 03 I live a mile away from a gorgeous mountain range, Lost River Range. The highest peak in Idaho is on that range. I can see King Mountain, which is 10,600 foot, you know, right out my back window. This place is pretty special.
49:02 John Hopkins? Next time on Real Survival Stories, we meet elite fighter pilot captain Brian Udell. The 31-year-old is an aeronautical expert at the top of his game. But during a high-speed training exercise over the Atlantic Ocean, Brian's F-15 fighter jet suffers a major malfunction, and he is forced to eject while traveling at 800 miles an hour, faster than the speed of sound.
49:29 John Hopkins? It's never been done before, for very good reason.
49:33 Speaker 05 Here we are at 700, roughly 780 knots, supersonic. All of this equipment is only tested up to 600 knots because they don't feel that you're going to survive past that, physically survive. What happens when you eject supersonic? I felt like I'd been hit by a freight train.
49:51 John Hopkins? That's next time on Real Survival Stories.
49:57 John Hopkins? Listen today without waiting a week by subscribing to Noiser Plus.
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50:34 Speaker 00 Black Friday is happening now at The Home Depot, and we've got just the tree for your style, space, and budget. Keep it merry and bright, then make it yours with ornaments and trimmings for every holiday style. With festive favorites starting at just $49, shop for the perfect tree at the number one Christmas tree retailer. Find the tree that feels just right with low prices guaranteed at The Home Depot. Exclusions apply. Visit homedepot.com/pricematch for details.
Next Fighter Pilot Ejects at Speed of Sound Page updated November 6, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated