SAN DIEGO — Powerful winds were driving flames through the rugged hills along the U.S-Mexico border when Thomas Varshock and his son drove up to a fire engine near the highway and asked for help saving their home.
The fire, just two hours old, was chewing through chaparral west of Potrero, about 40 miles east of San Diego. Varshock told a fire captain there were residents still in a house near his.
The captain told Varshock to obey evacuation orders and get out of area, and the engine set off down the dirt access road toward Varshock's mobile home.
Within an hour, the captain, three firefighters on his team and Varshock's teenage son were severely burned; Varshock was dead.
A preliminary report released Thursday by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection offers the most detailed official account of events that led to a dramatic helicopter rescue.
The report gives the following account:
Varshock and his son followed the firefighters. When their vehicle stalled, the firefighters let them hop into the engine cab.
Firefighters met thick smoke but kept going after Varshock told them there was water and a good place to turn around near his ridgetop home.
Flames licked the side of the fire engine when they arrived at the home, where the living room was already being consumed and attic vents were exhaling smoke.
The fire captain ordered his men to abandon the operation and get back in the engine, but the truck didn't have enough room to back out of a small clearing and stopped running.
The heat blew out the passenger windows of the engine cab. Three firefighters took cover with Varshock's son in a rocky area, where they began sending radio distress calls that alerted helicopter pilots above.
A fourth firefighter ran the other way after being overtaken by wind-driven flames. He was found about 40 minutes later behind another rocky outcropping.
One firefighter remains in a medically induced coma and two others are being treated at UCSD Medical Center in San Diego. The fourth firefighter has gone home.
The body of Varshock, 52, was found next to the fire engine. His son was critically burned and remains at the hospital. Calls to family members were not immediately returned.
The department said it will review how firefighters respond to information provided by residents and how they decide which homes to protect. A final report may take months to complete.
The report did not indicate whether other residents were nearby, as Varshock had told firefighters.
The region's fires directly killed nine people, destroyed about 2,200 homes and burned more than 500,000 acres. Seven other deaths involving evacuees fleeing the blazes have been indirectly linked to the fires.
Also on Thursday, firefighters contained a 2 1/2-week old wildfire in Orange County. The fire, set by an arsonist Oct. 21, burned more than 44 square miles of canyon and forest land and forced thousands from their homes.
A $250,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arsonist.
