Subscribe to one of our news e-mail lists . Jeff Flock is CNN's Chicago bureau chief and correspondent.
Smoke jumpers are first and foremost fire fighters.
They are often the first firefighters to reach the scene of wild fires. That is because they parachute in to terrain that is inaccessible by other means. There are currently nine smoke-jumper bases in the United States and there are about 450 smoke jumpers in the country. Smoke jumping began back in the late 1930's in the state of Washington. The idea of smoke jumping came because of fires that were in inaccessible areas and the only means of getting firefighters to the scene was by the air.