Granite Mountain Hotshots Disaster | Shifting Winds | 3

Against The Odds

Wondery

Cassie De Pecol, History, Society & Culture, Dolby, Mike Corey, Dolby Atmos, Atmos

4.7 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2023

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When the Yarnell Hill Fire abruptly changes direction, hotshot Brendan McDonough has to abandon his lookout post and run for his life. Meanwhile, the rest of his crew, the Granite Mountain Hotshots, are safe on a ridge, in what firefighters call “the black” – an already-burned area. But when the winds change direction, and push the fire towards the town of Yarnell, crew chief Eric Marsh makes a fateful decision: to lead his men out of their safe area, so they can help fight the fire.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	A listener note, against the odds, uses dramatizations that are based on true events.
0:06.2	Some elements, including dialogue, may be invented, but everything is based on research.
0:19.4	Eric Marsh shoms the last bite of a cliff bar into his mouth as he surveys the wildfire
0:24.9	below him.
0:26.3	It looks 10 or 15 feet tall with thick smoke pouring out of it.
0:31.8	The flames are spread along a two-mile front, burning through trees and scrub brush on
0:37.4	a ridge overlooking the Arizona towns of Yarnel and People's Valley.
0:42.8	It's 3.30 pm on Sunday, June 30th, 2013.
0:47.0	For the past two days, the fire has been moving north towards People's Valley, but 10 minutes
0:52.1	ago, the wind picked up, and the fire took a 90 degree turn.
0:56.7	Now it's pushing east towards Yarnel.
1:01.3	Marsh is superintendent of the granite mountain hot shots, and he's sitting on a boulder surrounded
1:06.8	by his men.
1:08.3	Most are a decade or two younger than him, and they're laughing and goofing around,
1:13.2	letting off steam after what's already been a long and tiring day.
1:18.2	Marsh is in a sower.
1:22.6	His radio crackles to life.
1:24.7	Granite mountain, this is operations.
1:26.7	Do you copy?
1:28.7	Go ahead operations.
1:29.7	Have you got eyes on these two storm cells coming in?
1:34.4	Marsh looks up.
	...

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