June is Great Outdoors Month, initiated by President Clinton as Great Outdoors Week in 1997, and then expanded to the whole month by President Bush. It’s a great time to go outside and explore the country’s staggering variety of landscapes, but it’s also a time when wildland firefighters across the country brace for the summer wildfire season. Wildfires are often caused by a deadly mix of drought, lightening and overgrown vegetation, but can also be caused by careless campers.
Smokejumpers are wildland firefighters on the front lines of the country’s federal wildfire management program. They parachute out of planes and helicopters into areas near wildfires. There are only about 400 smokejumpers in the US, but the program has a long history dating back to 1940 and has long been romanticized, perhaps most notably in Norman MacLean‘s non-fiction account of the tragic 1949 Mann Gulch forest fire, Young Men and Fire.
Today, smokejumpers are considered a national resource. They either work for the US Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management, depending on the region where they are posted. It’s not a job for everyone. Strength and endurance are key, as is a certain fearlessness. Applicants must have extensive previous experience in wildland firefighting, be in excellent physical condition and have a high degree of emotional stability and mental alertness. There are also some height, weight and health requirements.
During the spring training period for new smokejumpers and refresher training for experienced smokejumpers, they practice the basics of their craft such as aircraft exiting procedures, parachute maneuvering and emergency procedures, parachute landing rolls, timber let-down procedures, parachute and cargo retrieval and tree climbing. Some training sites even have “virtual reality” parachute jump simulators to provide on-the-ground practice, with an experienced smokejumper at the computer.
During a typical season, a jumper might fight 5 to 15 fires. Some seasons will provide non-stop action with very little down time, while others will prove uneventful. When not on fire duty, jumpers work around their base at various tasks that might include parachute rigging and repair, fire training and gear maintenance and trail improvement. Physical training is an important part of the job and daily workouts are required. Smokejumpers are paid for a regular 40-hour workweek, with overtime and hazard pay when on fires.
For more information on how to become a smokejumper, check out the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management websites. Of course, if jumping out of a plane into fire isn’t for you, there are plenty of other jobs available with either agency — even regular office jobs.
Photo by US Forest Service via Wikimedia Commons.