Film debut of Gregory Walcott.
The inspiration for the film was the Mann Gulch Fire of 1949, in which 13 firefighters died, 12 of whom were 'Smoke Jumpers'. The crew chief, Robert Wagner Dodge, survived by setting a fire in a patch of waist-high grass ahead of the main fire. He then stepped into the ashes in the cleared area and lay face down while the main fire passed around him. The father of one of the dead Smoke Jumpers accused Dodge of abandoning his men and that Dodge's "escape fire" actually killed them, but a Forest Service investigation cleared him.