"We were working on a fireline [a path cleared to mineral earth 1 meter wide] when we heard the engines. We hadn't heard anything over the radio, so we weren't prepared. The slurry plane came roaring up a slope we were on top of... I could see the pilot's sunglasses... We hit the deck holding our tools in front of us and . . /Pow!/ . . the shit hit us head on... shooting right down our pants, into our boots. Huge globs of red mucous, wet fire redardant. Slimy, with a chemical tang to it.
We were happy we didn't have to keep building the fireline -- since the slurry had finished the job -- but we had to hike another hour and a half back out in the hot sun. The shit squished every step of the way, and itched like crazy. The other firefighters let us hit the showers right away at least."