I recall that on that fateful day i was one of the many who were fighting a forest fire that had consumed tens of thousands of acres.
We had a fire line 8 bull dozer blades wide and we were holding the fire from crossing into an area with limited access. We were getting help from the air with water and retardant drops as well as rescue helicopters providing medical evacuation for injured fire fighters.
All the air support were forced to land when all planes in the country were grounded and we needed special permission to re-activate all the essential air support. This compromised our efforts on the POE fire.