page_title: Mann Gulch fire
section_title: Young Men and Fire
hierarchical_section_title: Mann Gulch fire / Young Men and Fire
caption_attribution_description: English: Mouth of Mann Gulch — on the Missouri River, in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness Area of the Helena National Forest. Located in Lewis and Clark County, Montana.
context_page_description: The Mann Gulch fire was a wildfire reported on August 5, 1949, in a gulch located along the upper Missouri River in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness, Helena National Forest, in the U.S. state of Montana. A team of 15 smokejumpers parachuted into the area on the afternoon of August 5, 1949, to fight the fire, rendezvousing with a former smokejumper who was employed as a fire guard at the nearby campground. As the team approached the fire to begin fighting it, unexpected high winds caused the fire to suddenly expand, cutting off the men's route and forcing them back uphill. During the next few minutes, a "blow-up" of the fire covered 3,000 acres in ten minutes, claiming the lives of 13 firefighters, including 12 of the smokejumpers. Only three of the smokejumpers survived. The fire would continue for five more days before being controlled.
  The United States Forest Service drew lessons from the tragedy of the Mann Gulch fire by designing new training techniques and safety measures that developed how the agency approached wildfire suppression. The agency also increased emphasis on fire research and the science of fire behavior.
context_section_description: The Mann Gulch Fire was the subject of Norman Maclean's book Young Men and Fire, which was published after his death.  The book won the National Book Critics Circle Award for non-fiction in 1992.
  Norman Maclean's son John wrote a book in 2003 titled Fire and Ashes: On the Front Lines Battling Wildfires, and it also includes a section on the Mann Gulch fire. In 2004, John N. Maclean also published an article called "Fire and Ashes: The Last Survivor of the Mann Gulch Fire," in Montana: The Magazine of Western History. The article was adapted from the Mann Gulch section of his book, in which he interviewed Bob Sallee, the last remaining survivor of the fire.
caption: Mann Gulch, looking southeast from Missouri River. The fire came down off the near end of the ridge on the right into the gulch and "blew up", overtaking the fleeing smokejumper crew on the west side.
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