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NOVA News Minutes Wildfire Lifesaver (running time 01:26) Transcript August 1, 2003 NARRATOR: When the flames get thick and the wind picks up, there are three words every wildland firefighter is prepared to hear. JOHN N. MACLEAN (Author and Journalist): "Reverse and move." Three words. Everybody knows what this one means. You don't sit here and kumbaya at this point. You do it. NARRATOR: But as this PBS NOVA recreation of a Colorado fire in 1994 shows, sometimes there's no place to run. Fourteen people died in this blaze. Some died despite using their portable fire shelters. The shelters are one-person fireproof tents. Now, after years of research, the Forest Service is introducing what they believe is an improved version. Rather than one layer made of aluminum foil and fiberglass, the new shelter has a second layer containing silica, which slows heat transfer to the inside. In direct flame tests, temperatures inside the new shelter rose by 130 degrees. In the old model, it rose 570 degrees. But even with the improvements, experts say it should still only be used as a last resort. JOHN N. MACLEAN (Author and Journalist): There are times you pull back. There are times you just say no. If you're a supervisor on a fire and you know it's going to be a windy afternoon and you don't have a handle on this fire, you get your people out of there. NARRATOR: Because even the new shelters with the latest materials have their limits. I'm Brad Kloza.
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