A recently released CalFire report reveals how one fire captain narrowly escaped death and banded together with two civilians to save themselves by using a fire shelter — a last resort meant to protect from a blaze burning all around — during the Kincade Fire in Sonoma County.

Around 3:45 p.m. on Oct. 25, the report said, a captain assigned as a division supervisor during the Kincade Fire was near Pine Flat Road near Geyserville, where he had gone to check on firefighters after hearing reports that some were not wearing protective wildland gear.

The Kincade Fire, which eventually burned more than 77,000 acres, had already been burning for nearly two days. Before the incident, there had been a “significant” wind shift from the west to the north, according to CalFire.

After reaching a cabin on a nearby road, Circle 8 Lane, the firefighter noticed a spot fire burning. He started to head back down when he was cut off by fire burning down the hill and across the road.

Backing up, he realized fire had burned across the road behind him, trapping him in the area as winds shifted and pushed the fire toward him.

While firefighters are trained to avoid situations in which they might be trapped by flames, they also carry protective gear in case a blaze shifts unpredictably, as the Kincade Fire did that day. The tarp-like fire shelters, typically used in the most dire circumstances, are designed to reflect heat and also trap in breathable air when deployed around one person.

Having radioed the helicopter nearby to warn that he was in a life-threatening situation, the CalFire supervisor on Circle 8 Lane was told the roads were “impassable” and instructed to stay where he was, according to the report.

He torched the area around him, a preventative measure to remove dense brush and vegetation and create less fuel for the raging fire to catch.

But as he finished that task, two strangers suddenly appeared, driving toward him in a pickup truck. They were civilians, coming from another residence down Circle 8 Lane, the report said.

The fire captain told the pair they wouldn’t be able to get through, and directed them under the fire shelter he had deployed for himself. He told the civilians, clad in t-shirts and pants, to try and cover as much of their bodies as possible to protect themselves against the blazing heat.

Crouched together, heads down, the three of them stayed there for about 10 minutes, trying to keep the sides of the shelter sealed to the ground to keep out flames, embers and noxious gases. The fire captain peeked out several times to assess the situation as the fire burned past the group.

Meanwhile, helicopters dropped water in the area 16 times to help quiet the fire, having been warned by the division supervisor that he and the civilians were trapped.

When the fire died down in their immediate area, the firefighter exited and saw the nearby cabin on fire. He and one of the civilians moved their vehicles away from the flames and into a clearance already cut by a bulldozer.

At about 4:42 p.m. — half an hour after the fire division supervisor first became trapped — other CalFire personnel, including medics, reached the firefighter and civilians, and took them to local hospitals. No one was seriously injured, according to the report from CalFire.

The Kincade Fire continued to burn for two weeks, destroying 374 structures, including 174 homes, before it was fully contained on Nov. 6.