THORP, Wash. (AP) -- A firefighter rescued a couple from a rapidly growing wildfire that killed four other firefighters by cramming them into her one-person emergency fire shelter.
The firefighter, Rebecca Welch, 22, suffered second-degree burns on her right side Tuesday because she could not get completely inside the survival tent.
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``It was an heroic act,'' said Dr. Ann Diamond, who treated Welch at the Country Clinic in nearby Winthrop.
The couple, Bruce Hagemeyer, 53, and his wife, Paula, 50, who had gone into the area to hike, were treated for smoke inhalation and burns.
``There's no question that she saved us,'' Bruce Hagemeyer said. ``No doubt about it at all. We would have died.''
The wildfire began Tuesday as a small blaze, believed to have been sparked by an unattended campfire. But when the wind came up, the fire blew to 2,500 acres in just over two hours.
The Hagemeyers, who live near Thorp, were looking for a quiet place to hike when they drove their pickup north up the Chewuch River on Tuesday morning. They saw a charred area but thought the burn was under control. They pitched their tent a few miles upriver.
Then they saw smoke rising high in the sky from the direction they had driven, broke camp and headed out.
``I said smoke ... fire. One way out. We'd better go,'' Hagemeyer said. A couple of miles down the road, the Hagemeyers met a retreating forest service crew and learned they had been cut off by the fire.
Moments later, they heard the roar of the approaching flames. Burning tree limbs sailed over the canyon wall and landed on the other side of the river. Trees exploded in flames.
Hagemeyer heard a crew leader yell, ``Don't panic!''
That's when he and his wife encountered Welch, who let them inside the emergency shelter. The shelter, which resembles a pup tent, is designed for one person and can accommodate two in a pinch.
As the heat intensified, they anchored the shelter beneath their legs and arms to keep it from flipping away. They used their hands to beat out the flames in the brush beside them and douse smoldering patches in each others' clothes.
When the roar diminished, they heard a call from other firefighters to move into the river.
From the river the couple could see their truck on fire. Moving downstream, they watched the top of a tree break and fall into the river near where they had been standing.
Finally they reached an undamaged van from the firefighting crew and drove to safety.
The deaths of the four firefighters were the worst loss of life in a wildfire since 14 firefighters were killed near Glenwood Springs, Colo., on July 6, 1994.
Firefighter Saves Washington Hikers