I'm with you Mike. How does a 20 person Hotshot crew get caught out that bad.
Unfortunately, there will be finger pointing. For all the young bucks here, when there is an accident, there will be important people come and review it. Some of those people may never have been in your situation, some will have. There WILL be an attorney who reviews the results of the investigation. Make no mistake about it....in the case of the government, they will be looking for answers, AND those answers will be in the form of a list of factors. That list begins with:
1. The crew did NOT adhere to the following standing fire orders......
2. The crew ignored the following watch out situations.......
It is their job to protect the government from litigation. Same goes for aircraft accidents, they spend months trying to dis-prove that there was anything wrong with the aircraft, and then whatever they CANNOT dis-prove, by default becomes the cause. Typically that becomes HUMAN ERROR. (Again, the manufacturer will have their representatives on the accident investigation team.
MY POINT------in everything you do, take a moment and think this phrase: "What will the accident report look like".
Take to heart this quote from Paul Gleason as he spoke about the losses at the Loop Fire: “We as firefighters can most honor them by recognizing and cherishing the lessons they have imparted to us at the greatest price.”