Smokejumper

A smokejumper is a wildland firefighter that parachutes into a remote area to combat wildfires.

Fully-outfitted smokejumpers boarding an aircraft in Missoula, Montana enroute to a fire in the Idaho Panhandle, July 1994

Smokejumpers are most often deployed to fires that are extremely remote. The extra risk and trouble associated with this method is justified by reaching a wildfire shortly after ignition when it is still relatively small. Another argument for delivering wildland firefighters by parachute is the fact that the fixed-wing aircraft that carry smokejumpers are cheaper to operate over long distances, carry more personnel and equipment and have higher top speeds than the helicopters often used for other fire deployments. While remoteness is one reason parachute deployment is used, it adds to the risk inherent in smokejumping as crews are often hours away from help if the wind shifts or someone gets injured. The ordinary risk of a parachute jump, the adverse conditions for the jump, and the lack of resources for firefighting and rescue once on the ground in a remote area gives smokejumping a reputation as exceedingly dangerous work.

Smokejumpers Worldwide

Smokejumpers are employed in large numbers by the Russian Federation, the United States of America. They are also reportedly a core elment of Mongolian wildland firefighter, and Canada purportedly maintains a small group of jumpers. Although this article focuses on U.S. Smokejumpers, Russia maintains more smokejumpers than any other nation in the world (several thousand) and has the longest history of established smokejumping of any nation (reportedly established in 1936, as opposed to 1939 in the United States).

Technique and locations

Smokejumpers use two types of parachutes: round parachutes (used by the Forest Service), and ram-air type sport parachutes, employed by the Bureau of Land Management. Since they are jumping into remote and often forested locations, they jump wearing heavily padded clothing in order to be prepared for the possibility of landing in a tree.

Typical smokejumper fires are small (under several acres), isolated, and in mountainous or very remote terrain. Once on the ground, smokejumpers normally use hand tools such as pulaskis (a combination ax and mattock), shovels, chainsaws and portable pumps to attack the fire. Often their first attempt to cut a firebreak fails to contain the spread of a wildfire, and ground forces (engine crews, hotshots, and local handcrews) may be called in to contain the fire. In practice, smokejumpers usually catch in excess of 90% of the fires they respond to, although public exposure of the lost fires is understandably much greater. Explosives are sometimes used in this role, having been first used on a fire by jumpers in 1974 as a fireline technique. However, fireline explosives have proven to be expensive, time consuming, and ineffective due to the rapidly changing dynamics in the fire environment.

In the United States, smokejumper bases currently operate in Missoula, Montana; Fairbanks, Alaska; Boise, Idaho; McCall, Idaho; Winthrop, Washington; Redding, California; West Yellowstone, Montana; and Redmond, Oregon. The largest of these bases is in Boise. Formerly, smokejumper bases have also been located in Cave Junction, Oregon; Idaho City, Idaho; Bristol, Virginia; and a few other locations. Russia, Canada [1], and Mongolia also have smokejumper programs.

History

Prior to the full establishment of smokejumping, experiments with parachute insertion of firefighters were conducted in 1934 in Utah and in the Soviet Union. Earlier aviation firefighting experiments had been conducted with air delivery of equipment and "water bombs." Although this first experiment was not pursued, another was begun in 1939 in the Methow Valley, Washington State, where professional parachutists jumped into a variety of timber and mountainous terrain, proving the feasibility of the idea. This also saw the first Forest Service employee jumper, Francis Lufkin, who was originally hired as a climber to extract the professional parachutists from the trees. It is believed that he made this first jump on a dare from the parachutists.

The following year, in 1940, permanent jump operations were established at Winthrop, Washington and Ninemile Camp, Montana. The first actual fire jumps in the history of smokejumping were made by Rufus Robinson and Earl Cooley at Marten Creek in the Nez Perce National Forest on July 12, 1940 out of Ninemile, followed shortly by a two-man fire jump out of Winthrop. In subsequent years, the Ninemile Camp operation moved to Missoula, where it became the Missoula Smokejumper Base. The Winthrop operation remained at its original location, as North Cascades Smokejumper Base. The "birthplace" of smokejumping continues to be debated between these two bases, the argument having persisted at this time for approximately 67 years. After observing smokejumper training methods at Ninemile Camp, Major William H. Lee, U.S. Army, went on to establish the U.S. army airborne.

Safety record

Despite the seemingly dangerous nature of the job, fatalities are rare. The largest disaster involving smokejumper deaths on the job was the Mann Gulch fire blowup of 1949. Thirteen firefighters died during the blowup, twelve of them jumpers. This disaster directly led to the establishment of modern safety standards used by all wildland firefighters.

Statistically, smokejumping remains safer than ground-based wildland firefighting as a whole. Some have suggested that this is due to unreported minor injuries from ground collisions and trees. Others feel that smokejumping's safety record can be credited to rigorous training and canditate selection. For obvious reasons, few bases are willing to hire individuals they believe will be unable to cope with the stress and dangers of the job.

Controversy

Smokejumping is historically a focal point of controversy, at least in the United States. Not only is smokejumping somewhat disturbing in concept ("parachute onto burning, forested mountain in middle-of-nowhere, put fire out), but smokejumpers do the bulk of their work in isolated locations, without more formal oversight. To the extent that they are able, jump bases like to be rigorous in candidate selection and "wash out" unsuitable applicants, who do not necessarily develop a positive attitude towards smokejumping as a result. Jump techniques are often difficult for outsiders to fully understand, and jump culture tends to be somewhat clannish. In the U.S. Forest Service, "the jumper mafia" is a not-uncommon term used to describe their subculture. They are also sometimes referred to as "lawn darts." Strong pro- and anti- smokejumper viewpoints can be found throughout wildland firefighting organizations.

Some feel that smokejumper operations are expensive to maintain and marginally effective. Smokejumpers and many land managers believe that, due to their extreme initial-attack function, smokejumping is one of - if not the - most cost effective wildland firefighting method employed in the U.S. today.

References

• Cohen, Stan. A Pictorial History of Smokejumping. Pictorial Histories Publishing, 1983. ISBN 0-933126-40-9
• Pyne, Stephen J. Fire In America. University of Washington Press, 1982. ISBN 0-295-97592-X

External links

• Smokejumping Oral History Project, Idaho
• National Smokejumper Association (USA), including history
• US Forest Service - National Interagency Smokejumper Training Guide, including history (in PDF format).