I was a combat helicopter pilot for the 117th Assult Helicopter Company in Long Bein Vietnam during 1969. We were flying support of the 151 Inf Co. (LRRP,'s) We had placed a heavy team reconacenc team in the jungle that day and hoped they would not see any action for a couple of days. That night the enemy made contact and it was our job to extract them as soon as possible. The gunships arrived on station and began their gun runs to secure the landing zone with a Spooky overhead providing illumination. Since it was a heavy team it required 2 aircraft to extract the team but the LZ would only accept 1 helicopter at a time. Since I was flying the second helicopter I would have to wait my turn. The first aircraft made it in and out succesfully, now we were next. Before we landed the gunships managed to set the LZ on fire. This was not a small fire it was a huge fire in elephant grass, grass that was 8-10 feet tall. By the time we got on the ground we were surrounded by flames 20-30 feet high and it must have be over 130 on the ground and getting hotter by the moment. The short wait for the troops to climb aboard it went through my mind we had to leave now or we might not make it at all. As we lifted off the aircraft was almost refusing to fly, the heat was so intence and the air so thin. I remember the copilot giving torque meter readings as we tried to take of 30, 40, 50, we had maxed out and were not going up. In front of us were a couple of large dead to close to gether to fly thru but if we could bank sharply we might be able to get thru and escapte the flames. It worked we were now clear of the flames and starting to climb. I knew we were safely airborne when I could see the stars on that very dark night. I not sure the troops in the back knew how close we came to not making it that night. The old wartime addage hours and hours of shere boredom punctuated by shere moments of terror was alive and well that night.