A listener note, against the odds, uses dramatizations that are based on true events.

Some elements including dialogue may be invented, but everything is based on research.

Arizona Forestry Firefighter Rush Schumat is squins into the late afternoon sun

and studies the smoke rising from a ridge three miles to the west.

A wildfire is burning along that ridge and its Schumat's job to stop it.

But right now, he's losing the battle.

He's standing in the parking lot of the ranch house restaurant outside Yarnel, Arizona.

Yesterday, the plume was wispy and white, but overnight, the smoke turned gray,

a worrying sign that the fire was getting hotter and more intense.

It started down in a ravine covered in thick desert vegetation called Shapirol,

a mix of small trees and shrubs, like scrubble, juniper, and manzanita.

It hasn't rained here in months, so the Shapirol is bone dry, perfect fuel for a wildfire.

Schumat lifts his radio and calls up to a plane circling the ridge.

Jerry, you got eyes on the fire? What's the size?

80 acres, maybe more.

Schumat groans. This morning, the fire covered just two acres. He knows they've let it get away from them.

It's nearly 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 29, 2013.

Early this morning, about 12 hours ago, Schumat dispatched a few fire engines to battle the blaze.

He also ordered a crew of six inmates from the local prison to use chainsaws to cut brush to

form a fire break, a line that's clear of burnable vegetation to deprive the fire of fuel and stop it

from advancing. But the fire engines didn't have enough water to put out the fire, and the prisoners

were delayed until 11 a.m. They did great work cutting brush until mid afternoon when their chainsaws

...