Cal Fire captain Shawn Raley barked evacuation (疏散) orders over the radio for the neighborhood of Sunset Terrace. The sky was red and the wind screamed. New fires lit in bushes and on roofs. Raley, a 24-year veteran of wildland fires, had seen nearly everything, including swirling eddies of air called fire whirls. But he hadn’t seen anything like this.
At around 7:15 p.m., he drove toward areas in the wooded hills. He figured that residents would need help escaping. His headlights barely pierced the smoke, but he could see three bulldozers (推土机) inch past him on two-lane Buenaventura Boulevard. Don Andrews drove one; Terry Cummings and Jimmie Jones drove the other two. They were under swaying electrical line, and Raley shouted at them to move away.
In the driveway of a house, Raley spotted a Tesla with someone in the driver’s seat. Dr. Thiruvoipati Nanda Kumar had raced eight kilometres home from Vibra Hospital. His wife, Yasoda, and daughter, Sushma, hadn’t received an evacuation alert, and when the power cut out, their garage door wouldn’t open. locking their car inside.
“Go back!” Raley shouted at Kumar, sounding his siren.
“My wife and daughter are there. Can they come in? Kumar said, pointing to Raley’s vehicle. He figured they’d be safest with the captain.
“Come in my truck?” Raley asked. “Yes.”
The women jumped into the back seat, coughing. Nearby, flames that climbed 30 meters burned their neighbors’ homes. Soon theirs would fall, as well.
“I’ll lead you out,” Raley yelled to Kumar. “Take your car.”
Debris (碎片) attacked the truck, cracking Raley’s windshield and breaking the other windows as the wind blew the vehicle off the road. The captain threw himself across the passenger seat, protecting his face as the fire passed over them. Yasoda and Sushma screamed.
“Are you okay?” Raley shouted, though he knew the answer. He was embarrassed. He’d told this trapped family that he would get them out safely. Now they were covered in glass and bleeding. Behind them, the trunk of Kumar’s Tesla was a flame.
【小题1】What can we learn about Raley?| A．He hadn’t seen fire whirls before. |
| B．He was expert at dealing with wildland fires. |
| C．He put on the headlight to see clearly in the smoke. |
| D．He shouted at the workers on the bulldozers to move away the electrical line. |
| A．Kumar rushed back from work to open the garage. |
| B．The doctor’s house had been burnt down to the ground. |
| C．Kumar drove his Tesla following Raley’s truck to get out. |
| D．The whole family was trapped in the car during the power cut. |
| A．Because he was injured by the fire. |
| B．Because he might fail to save the family out. |
| C．Because his truck was blown off the road. |
| D．Because he found Kumar’s Tesla was on fire. |
| A．A Big Wildland Blaze | B．A Lucky Family |
| C．Lead You Out | D．Come in My Truck |
