This engine, Engine 78, was lost in the Harris Fire on Farewell Road.

My friend and firefighter Dan Steffensen almost died that day.

This photo begins what the citizens of Red Lodge remember as the Summer of Hell, the start of the Robertson Draw Fire on June 13, 2021.

Dan was one of the first on the scene with his favorite fellow firefighter Katy Purcell.

The smoke column in this photo would eventually burn 30,000 acres, turning Mount Maurice into an inferno, with this engine and every other vehicle from Red Lodge Fire Rescue standing between it and the town of Red Lodge.

At the last minute, a Godly hand pushed the wind eastward, driving the flames like a locomotive down the Bearcreek Canyon.

Just a month later, on July 16, Dan was burned over 60% of his body and flown to the University of Utah Burn Center, where no one expected him to survive the night.

Other tragedies hit the town that summer. A young MSU graduate was lost in the wilderness, and her body recovered seven weeks later. Another firefighter was killed in a freak skateboard accident. A sense of mortality was like a parked car on the town’s main street needing to be towed away.

And one county over, Captain Sean McCleary was diagnosed with cancer.

Dan was expected to be in Utah for six months. But he heard the prayers of the citizens of Red Lodge and came home on September 21.

I am; we are all so grateful that he is with us today. He lived, survived the torturous recovery, and returned to the town that needed him to come home.

For that, he is a hero.

As fire season starts again, please pray for all firefighters to be safe.

Captain McCleary passed three days ago. He and Dan had faced death and survived. But Sean’s cancer returned—nothing but love for Captain McCleary and his family.