'Smokejumpers': Firefighting's elite - YouTube 'Smokejumpers': Firefighting's elite Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jul 2, 2012 CNN's Gary Tuchman follows a team of elite group of firefighters who parachute into the front lines of wildfires. For more CNN videos, check out our YouTube channel at Or visit our site at Category Death-Wish Jobs: Smokejumpers Meld Sky Diving, Firefighting | WIRED Death-Wish Jobs: Smokejumpers Meld Sky Diving, Firefighting subscribe 6 months for $5 - plus a FREE Portable Phone Charger. On Twitter 11 hours A comedy about the apocalypse—penned by @neilhimself —is slated for 2018. So there's that to look forward to at least bit.ly/2jcWNvp Author: Matthew Shechmeister. Matthew Shechmeister Photo Date of Publication: 09.22.10.

Time of Publication: 7:00 am. 7:00 am Death-Wish Jobs: Smokejumpers Meld Sky Diving, Firefighting As seasonal wildfires rage in Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Southern California, firefighters in those states have already mobilized. But not all fires can be reached by road. Some require a little more finesse. That's where smokejumpers come in. Smokejumpers spend their careers going to the wrong place at the wrong time. They parachute to the edge of wildfires deep in roadless wilderness, then fight the massive blazes with little more than hand tools. The job can be just as dangerous as it sounds and no one knows that better than Frankie Romero, who leads the training of rookie jumpers at the McCall Smokejumper Base in central Idaho. While fighting a fire once, the upbeat and non-swearing base manager was struck by a falling snag, smokejumper parlance for the burning limb of a dried-out tree. It missed his jugular by a few inches, but left a gash that required quick medical attention. That wasn’t an option until the surrounding fire died down enough for rescuers to get to him.

The badly wounded Romero had to spend a night under the care of fellow firefighters with only a first aid kit and a few T-shirts for a pillow. The Mutilator Unlike recreational skydivers, smokejumpers don’t always have the option of coasting to a soft landing in open country. Before they leap into free fall, jumpers toss down crepe-paper streamers that act as airborne windsocks, showing the strength and direction of the wind at different altitudes. Even so, a powerful wind shear can occur in the final moments of the descent, propelling the chute to 20 miles an hour or more, making it impossible to control. To prepare for these harsh impacts, rookies spend a lot of time practicing the surprisingly complex art of slamming into the earth. Their landing simulator, affectionately nicknamed “The Mutilator” (top photo), lifts them up and drops them at one of three different speeds, with a maximum of 10 mph.

“Jumpers should hit the ground with both feet together,” says McCall base manager Frankie Romero, “and roll down one side of their body with knees bent and a pivot at the hip as they roll to the opposite shoulder.” Incidents like this are what constitute a rough day at work for smokejumpers. And a normal day at the office is hardly mellow. When deployed to a fireline, a smokejumper’s e-calendar might look something like this: Jump out of a plane flying at 15,000 feet, land a parachute near a hundred-acre forest fire, fell a few trees with a chainsaw and hack hundreds of feet of trench using hand tools. Rookie smokejumpers must learn how to clench a double helix of adrenaline and toil without losing their grip on a dozen life-and-death decisions. They must also master the art of sewing –- smokejumpers tailor their own outerwear. Their training is designed to minimize the risks inherent in the job, but of course, all the training in the world can’t erase the risks of dropping out of airplanes and landing next to wildfires. “It’s really easy for folks to say ‘Look if you just follow these rules you won’t ever get hurt,’” says Romero.

“That’s how media and non-firefighters view them.” Read on as new recruits test their mettle at McCall and learn the skills required to sky-dive into an active fire. Top photo: The not-fun part of practicing a parachute landing: getting dropped from “The Mutilator.” Second photo: Lane Lamoreaux, 27, of Flagstaff, Arizona, is a second-year smokejumper at the McCall base and a former United States Marine. Photos: Matt Mills McKnight/Wired.com At the McCall base, experienced smokejumpers are called “Ollies,” short for old-timers. Trainees are “Neds,” a play on “newcomer,” until the end of their first fire season. If you only jump for a single season, you’re a “Ned for life.” Every Ned must have at least 90 days of previous wildland-firefighting experience. Once they land at a fire site, smokejumpers use the same firefighting techniques they learned while working with ground-based crews. McCall’s instructors expect rookie smokejumpers to know how to handle chainsaws and other standard firefighting equipment.

Training foremen focus on teaching parachuting skills and ensuring that Neds are fit enough to hike out of the roadless wilderness where they land. The 50-foot high parachute-landing simulator lifts practice jumpers about 35 feet off the ground using a motorized pulley system. Before hopping off the tower, jumpers review exit procedures, including the voice commands and hand signals. There is also a lot of backslapping involved, because smokejumpers are never supposed to take the plunge based solely on verbal instructions. They also practice getting into the right body position for entering free fall, tightening into a ball with their chins to their chests, knees locked, elbows pressed to the body, and hands on the reserve chute. Top photo: It may look like a victory celebration, but rookie smokejumper Michael Kolb is actually being tested on the proper stance for exiting a plane. Second photo: The fun part of practicing a parachute drop, leaping from McCall’s 50-foot jump tower. Photos: Matt Mills McKnight/Wired.com Last year, about 5,600 people visited the McCall Smokejumper Base, which offers several guided tours a week.

As you might expect, visitors are wowed by the sight of trainees trapezing though McCall’s high-stakes ropes course. Though the general pubic holds smokejumpers in high esteem, some members of the other branches of wildland firefighting are less impressed. According to a recent sociological study of wildland firefighting, members of ground-based fire crews often refer to smokejumpers as “lawn darts,” who despite their allure are not much use on the fire line. There are plenty more interservice rivalries in firefighting, giving rise to such choice terms as “water whores,” the fire crews that use hoses and engines rather than digging trenches, and “heli-slackers,” chopper-based crews who airlift supplies and personnel in fire zones. Members of the McCall Smokejumpers downplay the importance of the trash talk, pointing out the inter-agency cooperation has increased over time, building partnerships between the different branches of wildland firefighting. Top photo: Chris Niccoli guides a group of tourists through the training area at the McCall Smoke Jumper Base. Bottom photo: Smokejumper Brian Austin packs his emergency chute. Photos: Matt Mills McKnight/Wired.com "It bonds us together.

We've all been through it before." Top photo: “Crawl like a worm!” barks veteran Travis Dotson repeatedly at rookie Andrew Harris as he scrambles under chicken wire on McCall’s obstacle course. The U.S. Forest Service lays out very demanding physical fitness requirements for its smokejumpers. Each must be able to perform seven pull-ups, 45 sit-ups, 25 push-ups, run for 1½ miles in 11 minutes or less, plus be able to cover 3 miles in 90 minutes while shouldering a 110-pound load. Last but not least, they are subjected to the standard “pack test” that is required of all wildland firefighters: a 3-mile fast walk with a 45-pound backpack, to be completed in 90 minutes or less. The pack test is officially rated “arduous” by the Forest Service’s misery index. These challenges are known to rookies far in advance of their arrival at McCall, but the veteran jumpers have a few other tricks up their sleeves.

Buried in the six-page booklet that details the formal fitness requirements is a single bullet point suggesting that trainees shall expect to run an “obstacle course.” No information about that particular gauntlet are provided, but these photos speak for themselves. “It’s part of the tradition,” says Brett Bittenbender, a veteran jumper, while discussing the pain they put the new recruits up against. “It’s good-natured and these guys only deal with it for one year. It bonds us together. We’ve all been through it before.” Much like physical training for the military, newcomers are pushed to their limits and forced to perform tough physical challenges under emotional duress. Besides razzing the new recruits, the purpose of shouting and taunting the Neds is to ensure that they can handle the stress of the job. “It’s something that throughout the entire training is being evaluated,” says Romero. “We create stress and get them used to performing in that kind of environment.” Second photo: A rookie smokejumper gets some encouragement while running McCall’s obstacle course. Photos: Matt Mills McKnight/Wired.com “Run Ned, Run!” shouts veteran jumper Matt Carroll, egging on appropriately named recruit Nick Hasty.

Though Hasty is surprised to see the saw in this context, it is actually one of only a handful of tools that smokejumpers routinely bring to the fire line. Due to the difficulty of airlifting heavy equipment in and out of remote areas, smokejumpers are limited primarily to hand-held tools that can be dropped in by parachute and carried out in a backpack. One of the most common methods of containing a wildfire is to dig a trench in front of the advancing flames, a backbreaking task referred to by professionals as “punching line.” To do this, smokejumpers often use a Pulaski , a two-headed furrowing implement. One side of the Pulaski’s metal head is a hook-billed hybrid of pickax and garden hoe (adze) that firefighters use to break up topsoil and scrape it away. The other edge is a standard axe blade used for chopping through roots and brush, which would otherwise hold topsoil together and provide fuel for an advancing blaze.

The tool’s inventor and namesake, Ed Pulaski, was a forest ranger who saved the lives of his 45-man crew during the largest wildfire in American history, the Big Burn of 1910, which scorched more than 3 million acres of Idaho, Montana and eastern Washington. The heroic ranger tried to patent his innovation to pay the cost of treating injuries he sustained during the Big Burn, but sadly was unsuccessful. Even so, his invention has secured his place in the pantheon of wildland firefighting and is universal in the profession. Once they have hacked their way down to softer dirt, smokejumpers deepen the trench with a combination shovel and stubby pickax often called a “ combi .” Jumpers use the chainsaw, the only motorized tool in their standard arsenal, to chop down trees that could provide a path for flames to jump across the trench. Though there is a romantic aura that surrounds smokejumping, the reality involves grueling 24-hour shifts and a lot of ditch digging. “Sometimes I think of ourselves as nothing more than really intensive landscapers,” jokes McCall smokejumper Lane Lamoreaux.

Top photo: The chainsaw is harmless (the blade is under a protective cover and the chain has been removed), but nonetheless retains the power to motivate. Second photo: “Let’s go! You can do it! C’mon!” shouts a chorus of Neds as Michael Kolb runs through the tires at the end of an obstacle course. Photos: Matt Mills McKnight/Wired.com “The only thing your shake and bake will do is allow you to have an open-casket funeral.” Every wildland firefighter, smokejumper or otherwise, is required to carry a personal fire shelter — a “foil and fiberglass cocoon,” as base manager Romero describes. The shelter is designed to reflect radiant heat and protect a firefighter for a short period of time. It is most effective shielding a firefighter from a fast-moving blaze in low brush, which can quickly burn itself out. Romero considers the shelter to be effective for that particular application, though he is well aware that it is of little value for a jumper stuck in a long-lasting burn.

Some in the wildland fire community don’t share Romero’s rosy view, and refer the shelter by the mordant nickname “shake 'n' bake.” In his book Smoke Jumpers - Book Review - Children's Books Smoke Jumpers - Book Review What does a smoke jumper do? Where do they work? How do they do it? Smoke jumpers work together as a team to fight forest fires. They work together, and they jump from airplanes to get to the fires they need to fight. They have to jump from airplanes to get to the fires because often there is not a road to the wilderness area where the fire is located. Smoke Jumpers is by Joanne Mattern and is part of the "Working Together" book series. This series highlights careers about people who have to work together to help others. Some members of the smoke jumping team fly helicopters that can spray fires with lots of water. What do they wear? What happens when they land on the ground? How do they accomplish their mission? What tools do they use to fight the fires? Do you want to know all the details about what a smoke jumper does? Read and enjoy this book and you will come away knowing a great deal about how a smoke jumpers lives and works.

For instance: Do they get to go home each night, or do they have to stay at the fire? How do they get more supplies? Where do they sleep? What do they eat? What do they wear to protect themselves from the fire? Smoke jumpers protect each other, but they also work hard to save our forests. This book is perfect for those kids who want to read about a topic that really interests them, but at a reading level that is appropriate them. This book is full of facts and has photos instead of illustrations. The vocabulary is uncomplicated and the topic is appealing to kids interested in the world around them who want to know about the important jobs done by important people. This book is just 24 pages long with full-color photographs on each page but provides plenty of information for the curious student. They will get to see the smoke jumpers in action and also what they look like when they are eating or resting in the tent between sessions. Learn the answers to these questions: What is a fire line? ï¿½ What does it mean if something is fireproof? ï¿½ What is a Pulaski? ï¿½ What are forest fires?

-- Titles in the ï¿½Working Togetherï¿½ Series: Astronauts How Do SmokeJumpers Fight Fires? @ Super Beefy | Filed Under: People Leave a Comment SmokeJumpers jump just where you’d guess they might, into smoke. The name smoke jumper is given to a very special group of 350 forest firefighters. These man are trained to parachute from low-flying planes into parts of the forest that are hard to reach. Their job is to try to stop a forest fire before it gets so large it will be difficult to handle. At the first sign of trouble, smoke jumpers are rushed into action. They have special clothing that protects them from the extreme heat. Their helmets, glasses, and gloves are all specially made for the job. Aside from their clothing, they are equipped with the newest firefighting gear, wonderful first aid kits, and food in case they are forced to stay in the woods for an extended period of time. They even have specially made parachutes designed to allow them to land exactly where they want to. They have been very successful in keeping fires under control. The group has been in existence since 1939 and is part of the U. S. Forest Service, Fire Fighting Division.

Read More Also, any literature on baseball written in the 1800's does not credit Abner Doubleday with the invention either. But if my... 2016-12-28T23:28:08+00:00 I'm not saying that whoever wrote this did not research this at all but I am saying this explanation of the origins of baseball... 2016-12-28T23:19:30+00:00 IT TOOK ME OVER WINTER BREAK 12 DAYS 3 HOURS 5 MINUTES AND 36 SECONDS. 2016-12-28T02:49:36+00:00 The math here is false. The fundation of how this was worked out is how long it takes to count to 100 in seconds; which is fine... 2016-11-08T22:41:08+00:00 I've always wanted to know where that word got its etymology from and what the word truly meant. My parents and grandparents...

2016-10-27T04:26:31+00:00 Granpa Smoke Jumper - Lesson Plans Quotes-within-quotes Content Vocabulary abruptly, adorned, barrage, briefed, diminishing, donned, emphatically, extinguishing, flabbergasted, grueling, igniting, instinctively, maneuvered, preoccupied, pursed, relayed, resemblance, resilience These words are printed in bold and included in the glossary. You may want to spend some time with these words and encourage students understand their meaning through context and glossary definitions. Comprehension You will likely address a number of comprehension skills as students work to understand the text. The target comprehension strategy for this lesson is: analyzing character. Before Reading Build Background Ask questions to elicit prior knowledge and build background on the topic of wildfires and smoke jumpers. Ask: What is a wildfire? What do you think it might be like to fight a wildfire? What kind of qualities do you think youd need to be a good wildfire fighter? What is a smoke jumper? Introduce the Book Give students their books and have them look at the cover illustration and read the title.

Have them flip through the illustrations and make initial predictions about the story. Ask: What do you see in the illustrations? What do you think this book is about? Read page 4 aloud. Ask students to make predictions about Andy based on this information. Give students worksheet 1 and have them complete the first column before reading the book. Ask and say: Who are the characters you have met so far? Who do you think is telling the story? What impressions do you have about the narrator? What do you think might happen that could make the narrator change his point of view? I want you to write down your first impressions of the narrator in the first column. Set a Purpose for Reading Tell students you want them to find out how the narrator changes. After they finish reading Chapter 2, they should stop and jot down what they have learned about him so far. Tell students that they will complete the worksheet when they finish reading. During Reading Have students read the book independently. If you notice students reading beyond Chapter 2 without stopping to fill in the worksheet, encourage them to pause and retell the story in order to fulfill the reading purpose.

If the book will be used as a consumable, you may ask students to mark or highlight words they have trouble with or places where they are confused. After Reading Comprehending the Text Reflect on Reading Purpose Remind students of their purpose for reading and ask what they found out. Discuss how Andy's character changes his attitude through the story. Ask: Who did the narrator turn out to be? What impressions did you have of him after reading Chapter 2? Did you like, dislike, or feel neutral about him at that point? How did Andy change at the end of the story? What made him change his attitude? Have students complete the worksheet by filling in the final column. Discuss their answers by comparing them to students' first and Chapter 2 impressions. Ask and say: What can you learn about Andy from what he says on pages 19 and 20? Often writers build their characters by having them undergo some kind of change during the story. Do you think the technique of changing Andys attitude helps make the story more interesting? Explain. Other discussion questions may be: Where did this story take place? Can you retell some of Grandpas adventures as a smoke jumper?

How does the mood of the story change when Grandpa begins telling his story? Word Work Idiomatic Language Have students find the words "pulling my leg" on page 6 and have them read the sentence in which it is found. Ask students what the expression means. Ask why they think the author chose to use this expression instead of simply saying "she must be kidding." Discuss how authors often use idiomatic language to create authentic characters who speak in an informal way. Have students look for other examples of this type of language in the book. Examples are: bored out of my mind, stop in my tracks, and captive audience. Similes Have students find the phrase "it towered above me like some ancient wooden giant" on page 5. Review that a simile is when a writer compares two things using the words like or as. In this case, the tower is compared to a giant. Write the phrases, "Greg and I were crammed like sardines in the belly of the DC-3," (page 14) and, "the heat wrapped around us like a heavy blanket" (page 17) on the board. Have students explain what things these similes compare.

Personification Review with students what personification is. Provide an example from page 17: "Fingers of flame licked at the bark, igniting them one by one like they were candles on a birthday cake." Have students first identify the simile in the phrase, telling the two things being compared (trees and birthday candles). Then ask them how the flame is portrayed. Point out that the flame is given human qualities: it is described as licking the bark. Give out worksheet 2 and have students work with a partner to find other examples of personification. Some examples are: the wind whipped and tugged at my mouth; windows desperately encouraging the breeze to come in; smile played about his mouth. The paragraph on page 19 beginning, "Thankfully, Grandpa continued " provides some excellent examples of personification. Students should think of their own examples of personification to add to the list. Hand out worksheet 2. Tell students to read the descriptions on the page. In the spaces below, they should rewrite the descriptions by personifying the action. You may wish to model an example before students begin working independently. Grammar Quotes-within-quotes Have students turn to the last paragraph on page 14. Ask them who is speaking.

Explain to them that in a story, when one character tells his or her own story other characters will often speak during that story. In this case, the character Charlie is speaking in the story that Grandpa is telling. To indicate that we are reading speech-within-speech, two kinds of quotation marks are used. In regular, or direct, speech, such as the previous paragraph in which Grandpa begins, "However," regular double-quotation marks are used. But when someone else, such as Charlie, speaks during Grandpa's story, his direct words are put in single quotes, which look like apostrophes. In most cases when single quotes bump up next to double quotes, there will be a space printed in between the two for clarity. Have students look through the book and find other examples of quotes-within-quotes. Writing Connection Have students write a description that uses similes and personification. Help them choose a topic for their description. Then have them brainstorm ideas for similes and personification they could use. After they have completed their first draft, have them read through their work with a partner to see if they can improve their figurative language. Reading Independently Invite students to reread the book independently or with a partner.

They can also take the book home to read with their families. Invite students to read their figurative language descriptions. Assessment Monitor students' responses in the Comprehending the Text section to assess how well they understand the text. Review students' completed character analysis charts to determine how well they can analyze character and track character changes. Note if their descriptions are consistent with the information available at each point in the story. Review completed worksheet 2 to assess students' ability to understand and use personification. Smokejumpers and Smokejumping – Outdoor Adventures Smokejumpers and Smokejumping Fire in the Brooks Range, Alaska. FS-10 Parachute, early ’80s I was an Alaska smokejumper for well over twenty years. On this page, I’d like to share a few pictures and a tell you a little bit about the “greatest job in the world.” Click these pictures to see a bigger one! Although most fires can be reached by road or helicopter, smokejumpers flying in faster airplanes (this photo shows a picture of a DC-3 circling a fire on a fire run in the Bob Marshall Wilderness of Montana) and using specially designed parachutes can reach fires that are difficult to reach by any other method.

This was taken in a DC-3 over a fire in the rugged Cascade Mountains of southern Oregon. The jumper in the door is about ready to follow his jump partner who has just exited. The “spotter,” on the left, is making sure the jumper’s static line stays clear. The static line automatically deploys the main parachute of the Forest Service system. The yellow static line of the first jumper can be seen in the upper, left-hand corner of the door. On this fire both Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management firefighters safely jumped out of the same aircraft, business as usual nowadays. This photo taken from a Twin Otter aircraft shows a fire in Nevada, during the 2002 fire season. Smokejumpers often call this type of fire a “gobbler,” for the way it gobbles up everything in it’s path, including unwary firefighters. We picked a safe place to land, which was fortunate, because we were soon “burned over.” To be burned over means to be over-run by the fire. Because we knew this might happen, we selected a “safety zone” long before it was necessary.

When the fire blew up, we withdrew to a previously burned area and watched the towering flames and smoke and listened to the roar of the fire. Smokejumpers wear a padded jump jacket and pants, made of Kevlar, the same material used for bullet-proof vests. A motorcycle style helmet is worn, featuring a heavy, wire-mesh face mask. (At left is a picture taken by Steve Baker right after I landed on a practice jump.) A small gear bag is carried by each smokejumper, in which are carried water, gloves, hardhat, fire shelter, and other personal belongings needed for a shift on the fireline. Heavier equipment is dropped separately. A “let-down” rope is carried in the right leg pocket in case it is necessary to rappel down out of a tall tree. Here is a smokejumper doing a let-down on a fire jump in the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana. Smokejumpers find it is always a great deal more humorous to be the one standing on the ground hollering advice than to be the one hanging 100′ up in a giant Ponderosa!

There are two systems used, the round parachute by the Forest Service, and the square or “ram-air” parachute used by the BLM. This photo shows a practice jump with a ram-air parachute in the desert near Grand Junction, Colorado. (Photo by Dr. Steve Baker) Jumps are normally from 1,500 to 3,000 feet above ground level, in the safest spot that is nearby (not in) the fire. On most fires, two to eight smokejumpers are dropped, but additional smokejumpers or further reinforcements will be called in if necessary. Usually smokejumpers reach fires while they are still small, using hand tools such as the shovel and pulaski. The pulaski is a single-bladed axe with a grub-hoe on the opposite side, and is, undoubtedly, the greatest fire handtool ever invented. The closest smokejumper in picture 7 is swinging a pulaski. Since he’s cutting into the ground, he’s using the grub-hoe side of the tool. If he were cutting branches, small trees, or even a large root in the ground, he’d flip the tool around and cut with the axe blade.

Chainsaws are used (outside of wilderness areas) when needed. Trees, brush, and flammable debris are cleared along the edge of the fire to rob it of fuel and to stop the fire’s spread. The photo [taken with a flash] is of smokejumpers cutting hotline at night on a fire in Idaho. Sometimes back-pack pumps are used, or power pumps are dropped if there is a handy water source. Fires in Alaska call for somewhat different tactics. The perimeter is usually secured by beating with burlap sacks, or a 6′ spruce tree limbed up to a “broom” shape, or with specially designed beating tools called “tony tools.” Here are smokejumpers at nightfall beating on a spring fire on Kodiak Island with tony tools and burlap sacks. Water is used when available, and chainsaws are often used to cut a fireline through the spruce trees. On any fire, a backfire, such as the one shown, is used if necessary. This is an especially common tactic in the big fast-moving fires of the “Great Basin” such as this one in Nevada.

Often helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft (aka “air tankers”) are called in to aid the ground troops.Most smokejumper fires are out or turned over to other firefighters within 3 days, but smokejumpers have been known to spend over a month on fires. They are re-supplied by parachute, helicopter, or even by road if possible. Smokejumpers may leave a fire by helicopter, on a four-wheel drive fire engine, or, if necessary, by packing up all their equipment and doing a “pack-out.” Packs average slightly over 100 pounds, but may weigh 120 pounds or more. Here smokejumpers drop out of the timber on a packout from a fire in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest of NE Oregon. Unusually steep or non-existent trails have made many smokejumpers consider a career change. In this famous picture taken by Alaska smokejumper John McColgan in Montana in 2000, elk are taking refuge in a river to escape a large forest fire. Although many smaller animals perish in fires, larger animals, such as elk and deer, usually escape with little difficulty. Smokejumpers are wildland firefighters who specialize in parachuting to fires in remote areas.

I have spent my smokejumper years at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) base in Fairbanks, Alaska. There is one other BLM smokejumper base in Boise, Idaho. The rest of the bases are Forest Service bases, and they are located in Winthrop, Washington; Redding, California; Redmond, Oregon; McCall, Idaho; Grangeville, Idaho, Missoula, Montana; and West Yellowstone, Montana. During fire season, fire dispatch will send these jumpers to whatever region they are most needed. Every fire season temporary smokejumper bases are set up in such places as Silver City, New Mexico; Grand Junction, Colorado; and LaGrande, Oregon. There are about 400 smokejumpers nationwide. There are also smokejumpers in Russia, and, off and on, in Canada. Smokejumper training is intensive and consists of lots of physical fitness (PT) training as well as training in parachuting. The washout rate is often high, mostly due to injuries or failure to keep up in PT. There is a lot of competition to get into smokejumper training.

Experience in fighting wildfires is a must, usually two or more years, and previous service on one of the elite “hotshot crews” increases a candidates chances of being selected. Answers to commonly asked questions: Isn’t it dangerous landing in a fire? We land close to, not in, the fire. (at least that’s the plan, it’s not uncommon to land in smoldering areas.) What happens if your parachute doesn’t open? We use our reserve parachutes. Since 1940, only four smokejumpers have died during a parachute jump, a remarkable safety record. What do you eat? It depends on the jump base, but common foods include power bars, canned fruit, beef jerky, nuts, MREs (military Meals Ready to Eat), candy bars, small cans of tuna or chicken or ham, freeze-dried meals, ramen, energy drink mixes, canned chili, condensed soup, etc. Often the smokejumpers get to choose what goes into the boxes, so as tastes change, so do the box contents.

Excerpt from Jumping Fire: A Smokejumper’s Memoir of Fighting Wildfire Prologue The door of Jump 17 opens to an unnerving roar, swings aside, and reveals four hundred acres of fire crowning in black spruce. Orange tongues of burning gases lick high into the air. Coils of black smoke roll up from a flame front a mile wide. At the fire’s head, flames eighty feet high whip back and forth as if trying to tear themselves free from the earth. At fifteen hundred feet, we orbit and look down. The smoke column rises out of a blue-green landscape to tower above us, its lower third brown and black, its middle a marbled yellow-gray, its top a crown of sunlit silver. Air rushes into the airplane–thin mountain air, sweetly laced with the scent of wood smoke. The roar is so loud we can barely shout above it. Hitting turbulence, we bounce weightlessly, then slam down on the cargo. From the pit of my stomach nausea flows through the rest of my body. My breathing is rapid and shallow, tightly constrained by the chest strap on my jump harness. I struggle to my feet, grab the overhead cable, and make my way to the door.

We have an eight-man load. I will jump first. Jump 17 lines up for our initial pass over the jump spot. Dalan Romero drops the first set of drift streamers. Banking into a turn, we watch the streamers–one red, one blue, and one yellow–flutter brightly against the backdrop of the dark forest, then suddenly waver, tumble end over end, and sweep in toward the fire. We make a second pass to drop another set. They do the same. I watch through the door as the fire crests a ridge . . . Grave, but apparently satisfied with what he’s seen, [Dalan] shouts over his headset to the pilots, “Take us to three thousand.” Dalan turns to me, holding up two fingers, and I step closer to the door and brace myself, being careful not to get sucked out by the slipstream. Kubichek, my jump partner, takes his place inches behind me. “Looks like about five hundred yards of drift,” Dalan yells. “The winds are tricky down low. Stay wide of the fire. The jump spot’s in the shadow of the column there in that little meadow just north of the barn.

Do you see it?” I nod yes. Again Dalan’s head is out the door and looking forward under the plane. I hear the pilot over the intercom. “We got three thousand, Dalan, we got three thousand.” Dalan says something back into his headset, and then his eyes are back on me. “OK, two jumpers,” he commands. “Are you ready?” I nod yes. “Get in the door.” I drop into a sitting position, my legs hanging out into the slipstream. Kubichek is close behind, waiting. Sitting there in the door, even though the fire is more than a mile away, I can feel the heat on my face. Again Dalan’s head is out and looking. My field of vision fills with a panorama of the Alaska Range. The land below runs in a flat incline, rising east to the cloud-shadowed foothills of the Toklat River Valley. Beyond the hills, thrusting up out of the earth, is a world of jagged black peaks, blue ice walls, and massive snowfields–the heart of Denali National Park, a stronghold left over from the Ice Age, at once forbidding and magnificent.

Dalan pulls his head in, shoots me a quick glance, then raises his arm behind my back. “Get ready!” The slap comes down hard on my shoulder, and I propel myself forward with all my strength. In the next instant I am out and counting. “Jump-thousand, look-thousand . . .”_ The earth and the sky revolve in a blur of tilted horizons, aircraft wings, greens, blues, and rushing noise. My body pitches sideways to the right as I watch my boots fly higher than my head. I fall downward at ninety miles per hour. The forest, the fire, and the mountains rotate in a spin below. I look up as Kubichek clears the door–he, too, becomes a dark silhouette tumbling in the blue. “Reach-thousand . . .” My right hand reaches for the green rip cord. My fingers curl around it tightly. “Wait-thousand . . .” I am aware of what hangs in the balance of the next few seconds. Resisting the temptation to pull early, I wait out that odd, warped moment when time stretches, then begins to tear. “Pull-thousand . . .” My hand pulls right across my chest and shoots out to the side.

I feel myself tilt forward, then a tugging sensation across my shoulders, and the chute is off my back and struggling to open. Tossing my head back, I watch, and there it comes, billowing into a gleaming rectangle of brilliant orange and white. In the aftermath of the roar there comes a startling silence. I check the rear corners of my chute for tension knots, then reach for my steering toggles, pull down left, and come around into the wind. I look down. The head of the fire has temporarily halted along the crest of the ridge while the ground fire spills down into the valley. Kubichek lets out a long, whooping yell. He, too, has just opened. I yell back, then turn and try to orient to the jump spot. The smoke column rises high overhead, casting an ominous shadow far over the land. Facing into the wind, I try to locate the jump spot. I feel my gut tighten as I watch the ground pass below, appearing to surge one way and then the other as the chute rocks back and forth. Pulling down on the left toggle, I begin moving closer to the wind line. Still, I can’t make out the jump spot.

I yell at Kubichek that I can’t see the spot. He yells something back and starts laughing. Lightning arcs down out of the top of the smoke column and strikes the ground between me and the fire. Thunder cracks loudly, trailing off in a rumble. Sunlight streams down through a hole in the smoke to pool green and gold upon the land as it might on the floor of a cathedral. A small sunny meadow appears. Kubi and I yell out in unison. In that moment I feel as if I can fly on and on forever, sailing high above all the great forests and wilderness on earth, out beyond the farthest horizon, into the infinite darkness to drift among the stars. Other Smokejumper Links How can I become a Smokejumper? Advice on getting into Alaska Smokejumper training. Wildfire experience is needed. Click here to visit Mike McMillan’s smokejumper page. If you want to see some great smokejumper photos, this is the place to go. Click here to visit the official National Smokejumper Association Webpage. It’s a great source of smokejumper information and news.

Smokejumper Base Websites Retired San Rafael smoke jumper to fight Ebola in Liberia - SFGate Retired San Rafael smoke jumper to fight Ebola in Liberia By Vivian Ho , San Francisco Chronicle Updated 9:32 am, Wednesday, November 5, 2014 Photo: Courtesy / Courtesy Davis Perkins Image 1of/1 Davis Perkins is among nine U.S. volunteers. Davis Perkins is among nine U.S. volunteers. Photo: Courtesy / Courtesy Davis Perkins Retired San Rafael smoke jumper to fight Ebola in Liberia 1 / 1 Back to Gallery Davis Perkins is used to jumping into disasters. He’s a 64-year-old landscape painter, but before he semiretired he had been a firefighter and paramedic, as well as a U.S. Army paratrooper and a smoke jumper, parachuting into crash sites and forest fires to conduct rescues. This week, Perkins will be jumping into a disaster unique to anything he — and much of the world — has experienced. The San Rafael resident leaves Wednesday as one of nine volunteers nationwide who plan to help establish an Ebola treatment unit in the West African country of Liberia with the nonprofit Heart to Heart International.

“This is a whole different ballgame, for sure,” Perkins said Tuesday. “It will require ultra-vigilance, to the extreme, but I feel mentally pretty prepared. I realize that this is going to be entirely unique for me, and that I have to have complete focus on being safe.” Heart to Heart International’s unit, set to open this month, will treat patients with Ebola or symptoms of the virus, providing them a safe place to recover while keeping them isolated, said spokesman Dan Weinbaum . Related Stories Bay Area doctors join Ebola fight despite quarantine risks “We know how bad the virus is,” Weinbaum said. “As a humanitarian medical aid organization, we are compelled to go and help stop the spread of the virus.” In addition to the volunteers, the nonprofit has staff on the ground and will hire Liberians to work with them, Weinbaum said. The group hopes to have at least 200 people working at the treatment unit, with each one going through a week of training. Perkins, the only volunteer from the Bay Area, will be providing support to doctors and nurse practitioners, such as keeping patients’ fevers down and administering IVs. Perkins thinks he was chosen for the Liberia mission because of his experience.

He was a firefighter and paramedic in San Carlos and Belmont, and has training in handling hazardous materials. After retiring, he worked in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, and joined medical teams providing aid in Ethiopia and Cambodia. “It can be challenging, but at the same time it’s rewarding,” he said. “The people I’m with are just top-notch and we get a lot of good work done.” Perkins said that while most of his friends are supportive of his most recent trip, his 23-year-old daughter “was nervous as hell” when she learned he was going to Liberia. But he said he felt that he had no other choice. “It’s who I am, and it’s what I do,” he said. “What is it they say about firefighters? They run into the building when everybody is running out?” Perkins chuckled. “This is so damn frightening, what this epidemic is. There is a desperate, desperate need for people on the ground right now, and I just felt that if anybody is going to do it, it should be me. “I have the fortune enough to have some of the skills that are going to be needed,” he said.

“I hope I can do some good.” Perkins said he was “not even thinking about” the possibility that when he returns in six weeks, he might face a quarantine and public stigma. He also knows that many patients under his care may die. “You have to accept that people are dying around you,” he said, “but I know in my heart that this team I’m on, we are going to be saving people.” Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo Latest from the SFGATE homepage: Click below for the top news from around the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breaking news and more. Go to 'Sign In' and 'Manage Profile' at the top of the page. What Is a Smokejumper? | Wonderopolis Wonder of the Day #500 What Is a Smokejumper? Listen If a building catches on fire in your town, brave firefighters most likely drive a fire truck to the scene to fight the fire. But what about wilderness wildfires? Have you ever wondered how humongous wildfires in remote wilderness areas are put out?

Some forests and wilderness areas are far away from civilization . What happens if a fire starts in a forest and the nearest town is hundreds of miles away? What if there are no roads that firefighters could use to drive a fire truck to the scene? These are some of the concerns that led to the invention of smokejumping over 70 years ago. Smokejumpers are wilderness firefighters who jump out of airplanes and parachute into remote areas to fight wildfires. Their job is considered one of the most dangerous in the world. T.V. Pearson, a U.S. Forest Service Intermountain Regional Forester, first proposed the idea of smokejumping in 1934. He believed the best way to quickly attack remote fires was to fly firefighters to a position near the fire. Then they could parachute in and be ready to fight a fire without unnecessary hiking and difficult travel through rugged terrain. Smokejumping experiments began in 1939 in Washington's Methow Valley. Parachutists jumped into several different types of forests and rugged terrain to prove that it could be done. The following year, permanent smokejumping operations were established in Winthrop, Washington, and Ninemile Camp, Montana.

On July 12, 1940, Rufus Robinson and Earl Cooley made the first actual fire jump at Rock Pillar near Marten Creek in Idaho's Nez Perce National Forest . Today, well-trained smokejumpers are able to reach wildfires in extremely remote areas shortly after ignition . Reaching fires before they get too big enables smokejumpers to fight them while they're still manageable — and before they become a danger to the public. The United States isn't the only country that uses smokejumpers. Smokejumpers are also used by the Russian Federation, Mongolia and Canada. In fact, the Russian Federation employs more smokejumpers (several thousand) than any other country. After airplanes drop smokejumpers near a fire, firefighting supplies and food and water are then dropped by parachute into the same areas. Smokejumpers use these supplies to set up temporary camps they'll live in for the next few days while they fight a wildfire . Hundreds of highly-trained smokejumpers work out of U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management smokejumper bases in Alaska, Idaho, California, Montana, Washington and Oregon. They're considered a national resource, though.

Smokejumpers are often flown all around the country to help fight wildfires in remote areas. From jumping out of airplanes to parachuting into dense forests to fighting wildfires, smokejumpers must be in excellent physical and mental condition. The best smokejumpers tend to be highly- motivated people in great shape who can think independently and react rapidly to situations that change quickly. Due to their intense and specialized training, smokejumpers tend to maintain a safety record comparable to that of ground-based wilderness firefighters. Smokejumpers take extra precautions that make injuries infrequent and fatalities rare. Wonder Words (14) You don’t want to miss tomorrow’s Wonder. We’re taking a road trip! Try It Out Ready to jump out of a plane to fight wildfires? Well, maybe not! You need lots of training to be able to do that — not to mention quite a bit of courage! There are some things you can do around your house, though, to make it safe and prevent fires. Have fun learning fire safety tips from Sparky the Fire Dog . You can also go online to check out the links below for fire safety information, as well as some fun games!

Forest Fire Fighting with the Smoke Jumpers Forest Fire Fighting with the Smoke Jumpers August 15, 2012 in General Interest Forest fires strike fear in the heart of anyone living near huge tracts of forest land. Fortunately there are brave fire fighters known as the smoke jumpers. These individuals are carried over the forest in airplanes, and parachute out of the plane when they reach the scene of the fire. Sometimes they rappel out of helicopters, too, depending on the fire and the situation. The main advantage to having smoke jumpers fight a forest fire is that they can reach the remote areas of the forest where the fire is beginning to blaze. Smoke jumpers were first employed in the late 1930′s. There have been some big accidents in the past, but many potential dangers have been identified since then. It is a safer job now than it was then. Smoke jumpers wear heavily padded clothing when they jump into fire areas because there is a large risk of landing in a tree and being injured. The airplane crew also drops tools such as axes and chain saws, along with portable pumps for water and fire-fighting chemicals.

When the smoke jumpers reach the ground, they gather up the tools they need to fight the fire and begin. Obviously, a smoke jumper must be in excellent physical condition and enjoy the exhileration of risk. They also need to be intelligent, decisive, and quick thinking. They work in teams and crews, but need to be able to think independently, too. All fires are not safe to jump into, and a good smoke jumper will be able to tell the difference. They must know how not to jump into a dangerous fire foolishly. Smoke jumpers also need to be experienced in orienteering, which is finding their way around in the forest using only a contour map and a compass. Some of the skills needed for becoming a smoke jumper can be learned in the military. Of course, they must know all about fire-fighting, and are expected to stay with the fire until it is completely put out. This can require many continuous hours of work at a time. When they are not actively fighting fires, smoke jumpers work on maintaining their equipment. They also work out daily to maintain a high physical fitness level. Russia employs more smoke jumpers than any other nation. The pay is fairly good because of the risk involved.

Smoke jumpers can be satisfied in knowing they are providing a service that improves safety and security for people and wildlife in heavily wooded areas.

Question: What does a smoke jumper fight?
Answer: Wildfires