This delegation of responsibilities led to confusion among the crew and dispatch as to who was in charge of the situation. After arriving in Twisp, Washington at 7am, the crew was informed they would instead be sent to the Thirtymile Fire. The NWR#6 crew arrived at the fire scene at around 9am and began reviewing the situation with the Entiat IHC. The role of incident commander was transitioned again, this time to NWR#6 crew boss Ellreese Daniels. At 11am, the Entiat IHC left the scene to rest at a campground two miles down the canyon. The NWR#6 crew then began setting up pumps and digging fire lines. By noon, the crew began experiencing various equipment failures. The firefighters had problems operating water pumps, several fire hoses burst, and pulaskis were broken. As the fire behavior intensified, a NWR#6 crew member was sent to call back the Entiat IHC. The hotshot crew arrived back at the fire scene at around 2pm. At 3pm, the NWR#6 crew and the Entiat IHC assembled at a safety zone known as the "lunch site", where they rested, ate lunch, and prepared their return to the fire. Entrapment At around 3:30pm, two wildland fire engines arrived at the scene. The fire engine crews proceeded up the road from the lunch site and began working on spot fires, trying to contain the fire to the east side of the road. One engine radioed the NWR#6 crew requesting assistance with a spot fire north of the lunch site. Squads 1 and 2, along with incident commander Ellreese Daniels set out to support the fire engine. Shortly after arriving, the engine drove south to work on other spot fires. The third squad was then called to assist an engine—which was now about down the road from the other two squads. Minutes after arriving, the fire began spotting near the road and Squad 3 retreated to the lunch site. Squads 1 and 2 attempted to escape, but were cut off by fire crossing the road. With the only escape route blocked, Ellreese Daniels drove the 13 members of Squads 1 and 2 up the canyon looking for a safe place to wait out the fire. Daniels selected a site about up the road near a bend in the river. The location had relatively sparse vegetation and was flanked by a large rock scree to the west and the Chewuch River