Nail-Biting Footage From Inside a Raging Wildfire

Photographer, Filmmaker, and all around bad-ass Jeff Frost just released some of the most nailbiting and harrowing footage we have ever seen. The short teaser “Fire Chasers” is a preview of a multi-tiered project that Frost plans to release, including a full-length feature documentary, art film and a book. And with the adrenaline rush that this teaser delivers, it is a safe bet that we will be anxiously awaiting all three.

Frost first hinted at the future project when he penned an article for The Creators Project in which he describes narrowly escaping the raging inferno of the Rocky Fire near Clear Lake, California. Determined to get the time-lapse footage he needed for his upcoming film, Frost describes what happened when he tried to set up an additional camera.

I tried to set up a second camera to record the approaching onslaught, but my eyes, wind blasted with hot smoke, were desperately flushing water through my tear ducts. I wiped away the water with the sleeve of my shirt, but it only pushed salt, soot and dirt further into my eye sockets. When the heat from the fire, still an entire ridge away, became too much I jumped back in the cab. After several unsuccessful attempts I finally got back in the truck and stayed there. At least I already had one camera running time lapse setup an hour earlier.

That night alone, the Rocky Fire almost doubled in size, exploding from 27,000 acres to 46,000 acres. For those of us living in California, we vividly remember the frightening newscasts, as this was one of the worst wildfires our state had ever seen. Little did us in the photography community know that one of our own was embedded, right in the middle of the inferno.

But it turns out this wasn’t Frost’s only close call while documenting wildfires. The daring filmmaker has been filming for this for two years, and he is finally ready to share with the world what it feels like to be in the middle of a wildfire. The question is, are we ready for the heat?

Follow along as Frost’s project progresses on his website, Instagram, Facebook.

All photos kindly provided to Resource Travel by Jeff Frost.