Brook Fire Burnover: Vina Helitack Crew Suffers Minor Injuries in Near-Miss Entrapment
On Backbone Ridge, just east of Redding, a Cal Fire Vina Helitack crew experienced a burnover yesterday on the Brook Fire during initial attack operations. Seven firefighters received minor burn injuries and were transported by helicopter to Redding, where they were treated and released from the hospital.
This account is based on flight tracking data, incident mapping, and wildfire webcam footage.
Watch this story as a video on The Lookout YouTube Channel.
Initial Attack and Helitack Deployment
The Vina Helitack crew, based on Highway 99 between Chico and Red Bluff in Tehama County, received the dispatch at approximately 4:20 PM. The helicopter flew to the Brook Fire and made an orbit around the incident, scouting the fire’s behavior and terrain before inserting the crew at 4:46 PM.
The crew was dropped off near the heel of the fire, on a knoll surrounded by oaks and grass. At that time, the fire was growing quickly, burning upslope in light, flashy fuels, with some spotting. After inserting the crew, the helicopter departed to begin water-dropping operations.
From a dip site off Highway 299, the helicopter made multiple laps, delivering water to the fire from roughly 4:50 PM to around 5:14–5:15 PM. During this period, the seven-person crew remained on the ground. We don’t know exactly what they were doing, but we speculate that they headed toward the heel of the fire to engage in firefighting on the left flank of the fire.
Timeline Gap and Medical Evacuation
After about half an hour away from the crew, the helicopter returned to their side of the fire. Flight data shows it circling the area extensively before landing. It then spent about eight to nine minutes on the ground, during which time the injured firefighters were loaded aboard.
From there, the helicopter flew the crew to Benton Airfield in Redding, where ambulances were waiting to transport them to the hospital. All seven injured crew members were ultimately treated for minor burns and released.
The critical question is what occurred during the roughly 30–35 minutes between the crew insertion and the helicopter’s return.
What the Webcams Showed
To help answer that question, we reviewed webcam footage from the Bear Mountain (Shasta) camera, which overlooks the area and had a clear view down toward the incident.
- At about 4:20 PM, roughly 20 minutes before the crew was inserted, the fire was already active, pushing to the north on the upper slope.
- The crew’s insertion point aligns with a clearing on an oak ridge/knoll, visible on the webcam. That clearing matches the location where the helicopter dropped off firefighters near the heel of the fire.
- Around the time the crew would have been working near the heel, the footage shows a significant flare-up in that lower-slope area. Fire activity increases, with spot fire development and rapid movement along the flank in light fuels.
By 5:50 PM, an infrared mapping flight captured the fire’s perimeter, showing that the fire had extended significantly from where it was when the crew arrived. The data suggest that in the 20–30 minutes after the crew was dropped off, fire behavior intensified near the heel, in the very area where they were likely operating.
Probable Entrapment Conditions
While the exact details of crew movements and tactics will be determined by Cal Fire’s formal investigation, the available data allow for some informed inferences:
- When the crew was inserted, most fire activity was higher on the slope.
- In the short window that followed, fire behavior increased dramatically downslope, near the heel and along a flank with light, flashy fuels (grasses and oak understory).
- Given the limited time available, it is unlikely the crew could have moved far uphill; they were likely working down toward the heel to secure the origin area when the fire intensified.
The nature of the injuries supports this picture. The burns were:
- Described as fairly minor overall
- Caused when the flaming front in grass overtook them
- Suffered through their clothing, without deployment of fire shelters
This pattern is consistent with a rapid, low-to-moderate intensity flame front in fine fuels—dangerous enough to inflict burns on exposed or lightly protected skin, but short-lived enough that the crew was able to escape without shelter deployment and reach an evacuation point accessible by helicopter.
Fire Progression After the Incident
Following the burnover, the fire continued to spread upslope toward Backbone Ridge. Heavy air tankers laid retardant along the ridge, and available information indicates the fire was largely held at that line, with no major overnight expansion beyond that ridge.
In discussing the broader landscape, several factors stand out:
- Heavy fuels in parts of the area
- High temperatures, contributing to aggressive afternoon fire behavior
- Diurnal wind patterns, with strong up-canyon winds in the daytime pushing fire toward the lake, and nighttime down-canyon winds that can reverse spread direction
These dynamics create complex, rapidly changing conditions—especially hazardous when crews are newly arrived, still building situational awareness, and may not yet have a strong anchor point from which to start suppression work.
Changing Roles for Helitack Crews
Helitack crews and smokejumpers occupy a relatively unique niche in wildland fire. They are inserted aerially into rapidly evolving incidents, often in rugged terrain where:
- Anchor points may be weak or not fully established
- Fire behavior can shift quickly as winds, slope, and fuels interact
- Aerial resources that could be supporting them may be forced to leave temporarily for water/retardant cycles, refueling, or other assignments
This combination makes their work uniquely dangerous. The Brook Fire burnover underscores that reality. It also follows close on the heels of another tragic helitack entrapment in Colorado just three weeks earlier, in which three firefighters were killed.
Against that backdrop, the outcome on the Brook Fire—seven injured but all surviving, with burns described as minor and no fatalities—represents a near-miss that could easily have been much worse.
A retired helitack crewmember we contacted for this article commented that since Cal Fire has transitioned from their old ‘Hueys’ to much faster, larger ‘Firehawks’, the pilots are crew are less connected to the crewmembers on the ground. ‘The visibility out of the new ships is terrible. They’ve had to add a new, third crewmember, whose job is to help control the drafting and drops”. Helitack ships, he said ‘used to be more of a utility player, guiding in people on the ground, shuttling crews, and hauling supplies Now the helicopters are much more focused on the volume of water that they can apply to the fire, vs what they used to do, which was lower, slower, and more about supporting the people on the ground’.
An investigation will piece together crew statements, radio traffic, mapping, weather, and operational decisions to determine exactly what happened and what lessons can be taken forward. For now, though, the available data suggest the crew was trapped by a fast-moving fire in light fuels, and perhaps, lacking an eye in the sky that could have helped keep them out of trouble.