The Big Burn | Evacuations | 3

Against The Odds

Wondery

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

4.7 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As teams of firefighters and forest rangers find themselves trapped by the megafire and unable to help, residents of Wallace and Avery prepare to evacuate. While Ed Pulaski and his crew take shelter in an old mining tunnel, Ed’s wife Emma decides to flee with their daughter Elsie to an old mining dump on the outskirts of town, hoping she’s made the right decision.

Order your copy of the new Against the Odds book, How to Survive Against the Odds: Tales & Tips for Animal Attacks and Natural Disasters, for stories of everyday people confronted by life-or-death situations, showing you how they survived—and how you can too. Learn more at SurvivalGuidebook.com.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Against the Odds early and ad-free right now.
0:05.6	Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:09.5	A listener note, Against the Odds uses dramatizations that are based on true events.
0:14.0	Some elements, including dialogue, may be invented, but everything is based on research.
0:18.7	This episode contains scenes that depict racist attitudes and language.
0:22.2	Please be advised.
0:27.0	Forest Ranger Ed Pulaski pulls the damp gunny sack tight across his mouth.
0:36.4	The smoke in this narrow ravine is so thick he can taste
0:39.3	it, leaving his throat raw as sandpaper. It's the evening of August 20th, 1910 in the Cordeleine
0:47.6	National Forest of Idaho. Sunset was a few hours ago, but the flames on the ridge above him
0:53.3	cast everything into an
0:54.8	eerie orange light. Behind Pulaski, the other 45 men in his firefighting crew are strung out
1:01.7	in the line. Polasky is guiding them down the ravine toward an old mining tunnel where they
1:06.9	can take shelter, but their path is strewn with fallen trees and branches, blown down
1:12.7	by the fierce winds.
1:14.7	Pulaski glances up through the thick smoke and sees flames whipping across the slopes on either
1:19.9	side of the ravine.
1:21.2	He figures that they have five minutes, maybe less, to reach the tunnel before the fire
1:25.7	overruns them.
1:27.5	Pulaski swore he wouldn't leave anyone behind, especially not now when they're so close
1:33.2	to shelter.
1:34.4	So he calls over his shoulder to make sure everyone is accounted for.
	...

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