A searing heat pounded down on a fire crew as winds pulled flames 70 feet into the air and caused an archway over the road above them. Power lines burst overhead in the rising flames. In the distance they heard explosions and saw trees blow up as unexploded ordnance, or UXO’s, ignited from the fire. On an air force launchpad located 800 yards away sat an Atlas Five rocket carrying a Google Satellite worth nearly $1 billion.

“We were basically sitting in an archway of flames and heat and embers were hitting us. It was one of the most complex fires I’ve ever dealt with,” said Technical Sgt. Robert (Adam) Taron, the fire dozer team leader. The UXO’s were the result of the area being used as an old World War II army training camp and they were stored all over the place.

The story sounds more like something out of an adventure movie than real life. But it happened and Taron, along with his 10-member team, were recognized in an award ceremony at the Pentagon in Washington D.C. on Aug. 5 for their heroic efforts. They were also highlighted in book, “The United States Air Force Portraits in Courage — Volume X”, along with 22 other individuals and teams.

Taron, a 2007 graduate from Superior High School, was fighting a 13,000-acre fire in Lompac, California, on Sept. 19, 2016. At the time it topped the nation’s priority wildfire list, similar to the Sunrise Fire currently burning in Mineral County.

The wildfire was one of the largest the Vandenberg Air Force Base had seen and on the third day, Taron’s 30th Space Wing fire dozer team was called to the base. They had been making fire breaks in Lompoc Canyon where the fire was burning. Once on the base, his crew found it was difficult to breathe as flames grew around them.

They had two dozers and it got so hot that the heat bubbled the paint on one, which had to be removed from the area. The second dozer was used to widen the road as they put out spot fires. For hours they held the flames at bay as a DC-10 plane dropped retardant overhead.

“I was calling into the pilot and asked if he could see my dozer. I told him to just line it up and paint it. It was so smokey they were using our dozers as targets,” Taron said.

His crew worked tirelessly to keep the flames away from the launchpad, where the rocket stood ready for blastoff. It was fueled with hydrazine, a poisonous gas. If the fuel had gotten out, winds would have blown it to the population in Lompoc, a town located a few miles away.

The team fought the blaze until “all risk had been eliminated. Had they not risked their lives to block the fire, it would have put dozens of lives in peril and caused untold damage,” the book stated. Taron was awarded an accommodation pin by David Goldfein, the U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff, Heather Wilson, Secretary of the Air Force, and Kaleth Wright, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force.

“We take great pride in these everyday heroes. Each Airman demonstrated through their actions that our core values of integrity, service and excellence were intrinsic to their very nature. We believe these stories will inspire you and demonstrate that your United States Air Force, 70 years after its birth, is still made up of America’s finest,” they said about the individuals being honored.

Taron began fighting wildfires in Helena and was also on the Trout Creek Crew for the Superior District. He had been with the dozer team at Vandenberg for five years when the arson-caused blaze broke out. His dozer unit was the outcome of another large fire in 1976 which killed several people on that same base. The unit has a mutual aid agreement with Santa Barbara County and fights fires from San Francisco to Los Angeles. He’s no stranger to fire and fought several last year, with some reaching 50,000 acres in size.

“I love it,” said Taron. “It’s scary but the best drug out there is the adrenaline from a raging wildfire.”

He has hung up his firefighting gear for now and is working as a drill sergeant at the Air Force base in Lackland, near San Antonio, Texas, with aspirations of becoming an officer. He lives there with his wife Tori and their four children, Maquinizi, 8, Harleigh, 6, Maverick, 4, and Abigail, 20 months. His parents, Kim and Troy Taron, live in Superior.