For about 10 minutes, Emergency Services District 1 firefighters Jessilyn Davis and Lt. Brannon Stengel found themselves surrounded by a brush fire April 11 in western Travis County. The winds, which had shifted toward them, and 20 percent humidity that day only made matters worse. They tried to stay positive, but Stengel said in the backs of their minds, they thought they had come face-to-face with the blaze that would take their lives.
“With the the wind, it would just travel through the coastal grass faster than I could run,” Stengel said. “And the cedar trees and all the other fuels were dry, so the fire spread pretty rapidly.”
The visibility was so low, Stengel said, “you could barely see your hand if you held it out in front of you.”