In this podcast we hear Thomas Taylor recount his experience as a Hotshot Crewmember and Sawyer on the Nuttall Fire Entrapment and Shelter Deployment on July 2, 2004. Taylor’s account is his personal story of the moments leading up to the shelter deployment, the moments spent in the shelter, and his insights on life after a deployment.
Here is another short video of Todd Wood sharing a personal lesson from the Nuttall Fire Entrapment and Shelter Deployment. Wood was the Captain on the Flagstaff Hotshots during this event.
What are YOUR lessons on this topic?
Additional material on the Nuttall Fire can be found at:
Mr. Taylor shows real courage in his willingness to share his experiences and vulnerabilities. It is refreshing and necessary in this age of hyper machoism. The reality of how we respond to traumatic challenges can be complex and painful and certainly not how we fantasize how we will respond in an emergency.
I agree. I was traumatized on the Nuttall Fire and I made it out of the hole to Riggs Lake without deploying.
I swallowed the trauma for 13 fire seasons until I first heard this podcast in July of 2017. Mr. Taylor sharing his story helped me more than he’ll ever know. If I ever meet him I’ll buy him an orange La Croix.