Coming up on the 70th anniversary of the Mann Gulch Fire

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

The first major tragedy suffered by the U.S. Forest Service saw 16 firefighters (fifteen "smoke jumpers" and a seasonal ranger) killed when they were over taken by a fast moving wildfire in Montana. There was a book (Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean), a song (Cold Missouri Waters by James Keelahan) and a movie (Red Skies of Montana) about the incident, but it seems to have faded from memory. Now that wildfire season is here (or does it ever end anymore?) take a moment to reflect on this sad incident and think about just how dangerous a job it is to fight these fires.

On August 5, 1949, a wildfire overran 16 firefighters in Mann Gulch on the Helena National Forest in Montana. Only three survived—the foreman and two members of an 18-man smokejumper crew that had parachuted into a small valley or gulch near the fire.These deaths were a shocking loss to the firefighters’ families and friends. The tragedy was also a severe blow to the Forest Service, which had not experienced a fatality during a decade of smokejumping and was extremely proud of its elite firefighters. Repercussions from this incident were severe and long lasting.

In 1979, some 38 years after the Mann Gulch fire, author Norman Maclean contacted the Intermountain Fire Sciences Laboratory (IFSL) to help clarify the fire’s behavior for a book he was writing about the tragedy. Maclean, who died in 1990, is well known as author of “A River Runs Through It.” His second and final book, “Young Men and Fire,” was published in 1992. Maclean taught at the University of Chicago, but spent his summers at Seeley Lake, MT, near his boyhood home in Missoula. His research uncovered conflicting stories of how the fire had overrun the fire-fighters. When Maclean learned that Frank Albini and I were developing methods to predict fire behavior, he asked if we could use the same methods to re-construct the behavior of the fire that caught the fire-fighters at Mann Gulch.
-snip-

The Mann Gulch fire had serious consequences for the Forest Service and its research branch. While in Mann Gulch to investigate the fire during the fall of 1949, Harry Gisborne, the pioneer fire scientist in theNorthern Rockies, suffered a heart attack and died. Jack Barrows, who succeeded Gisborne, was directed to expedite research on fire behavior. He championed modern scientific research, establishing the Northern Forest Fire Laboratory (now the Intermountain Fire Sciences Laboratory) at Missoula in 1960.

Read more here: https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_int/int_gtr299.pdf

[Laxman]

1. A Staple Of The Late, Late Show.....

I would always end up staying up until 2 A.M. when I came across Red Skies of Montana on T.V. . I always wondered how they filmed that scene when the fire was blowing up and the trees were exploding in flames. That was 1952, long before modern special effects were available. I had a friend in college who went out to be a seasonal fire fighter one summer. He came back and said he was never going back again. He said he didn't mind the hard work, but being in a burning forest was terrifying. Young Men and Fire is a fascinating book. Much different than A River Runs Through It.

[CRK7376]

2. I read that MacLean book years ago...

Still resonates with me and I think about the Smoke Jumpers and Hot Shot crews today that fight the fires in our western states. Very courageous and dedicatged young men and women. My hats off to those protecting our natural resources, property and lives.