This was not a group of homes in a brush field on the Berdu, this was a subdivision of 1700 homes. Yes there was fire below, there was fire above, there was fire to the side, in short there was fire everywhere. But the fuel type was homes, there were no light flashy fuels to carry the fire, there was no continuous fuel at all. By the time we got in the main carrier of the fire was firebrands and radiant heat from home to home. The streets were wide, the utilities were underground, the possibility of being cut off was low. Even with the radiant heat put out by the homes as they burned, in the street it was not unbearable. Parks were abundant. Once we reconned the area, we knew that most roads were viable escape routes and in some cases were even potential escape routes or had one very close by.
Three strike teams went into Mountain Shadows, that's fifteen engines to cover 1700 homes, admittedly with the help of a few local government engines, at least one hotshot crew and LEOs patrolling for spots. Modules working alone was expected and necessary. Each strike team took several blocks, each engine took a street, we did what we could and then moved on. Five engines working on one house would have been exceedingly inefficient. When necessary multiple engines or entire strike teams tied in and made some very impressive stops, but this was after we had done what we could for individual homes and were now working on entire blocks in flames.
As I've said, each engine was working individual houses. The entire crew was working the house, within 200 feet of one another. That is why radios were not picked up. Communications on the modules were done by voice, module leaders called the STENs when needed, but that was mostly to relay intelligence and face to face was used most often at that level. There was radio traffic, just not on the intramodule level, as it wasn't needed and 15 people calling to say they were about to cut a deck off a house would have jammed up the one frequency we had.
You mention a "deliberate, tactical engagement" being thrown out. The deliberate plan was to keep the fire west of Centennial. We did. We could have burned off Centennial I guess, but that would have been frowned upon. Instead the tactical evolution went like this: Decision is made to hold the fire at Centennial, strike teams head up Centennial and spread out to the west to find the extent of the flaming front, engines report in where they have found the fire and attack what homes they think they can save while waiting for the intel to be collated, strike teams reconvene on Centennial and areas of responsibility are decided, engines head east of Centennial to control spots, at this point the wind has died down and the fire is now and urban conflagration west of Centennial, the engines are sent west of Centennial to save what we can with the focus being between Centennial and Flying W Ranch Rd. At no point was the plan thrown away, it was amended and the individual modules followed their bias for action and did what they could, but we are not automatons. Standing by the letter of the original plan would have meant sacrificing every home from Centennial to the Forest boundary when a good deal could and were saved.
Taking things at face value is the same as assuming, and we all know what that does. If you wish to ask probing questions, look higher. Why did the engines, STENs and Group Supervisor need to raid a gas station for maps? Why were three strike teams of federal type 3s the main structure protection force in an area that was under mandatory evacuation two days earlier on the priority fire in the nation? Why was no route into Mountain Shadows left open for fire traffic during the evacuation?
