Those crews were all financed by the timber sold and were not linked to the appropriated federal budget,” he said. “Federal timber not only provided for American jobs and reduced fuel loads but also paid for school districts, county roads, and bridges and most importantly, the large Forest Service crews that planted trees, piled brush, and built trails. You would rappel down from your parachute and within minutes you were building a fire line.”īut the key to restoring successful fire-fighting today, according to Karl, is the starting up of the national federal timber sale program. Almost all of us would be hung up in the trees right next to our fire. We would put two jumpers here, four over there and six on the next one until we jumped out the entire load. We would circle around the lightning storms and as soon as the storm moved on, we would pick up the fires. “I remember once flying in the old DC-3 with 16 of us smokejumpers over the big timber of Oregon. He recalls how every ranger was a trained firefighter and job one was fire suppression. According to Karl “it was deep in our culture … every forest ranger was a firefighter.” He says because of trained smoke jumpers the response time to fires stopped a lot of fires almost immediately before they could become raging infernos requiring hundreds of firefighters, helicopters, and slurry bombers. Karl laments the loss of so many fire lookout towers in recent years and believes that many should be rebuilt to help provide for early detection. The 1939 Smokejumper program of fast aerial initial attack by parachute was in direct response to the Blackwater tragedy. Soon a very aggressive system of prevention, detection, and control was in place nationwide. Back in 1937 the Forest Service did not have access to the present-day Fire Weather Warning system that was developed later by the National Weather Service, Karl said. The cause was later specified as an undiscovered “hot spot” which was rapidly expanded by this weather condition that can move into an area so fast. Other factors that lead to the blow up included the long-term drought of the 1930’s, the heavy fuels on the fire’s steep north slope, spot fires, a ragged or under-burned fire edge and the traditional large river drainage that will focus and intensify wind currents, according to experts he talked with about this event. Karl reported another 38 men suffered burns and other injuries as almost the entire crew was injured or killed in the conflagration. Karl told the following about the fire:Ī weather event called a “dry cold front” was instrumental in the fire blowing up and engulfing the crew that died. Nine men died immediately and another six died later of their massive burns. The development of a fixed lookout detection system coupled with aerial detection and a system called the Ten Standard Fire Orders all helped keep fires smaller and safer for the men who fought them. He cites several changes to firefighting brought about by tragic fires like the Blackwater. Lander’s Karl Brauneis is a national expert on forest fires. 18, it was not detected until two days later and 58 men were deployed in the area. Some of their excellent photos accompany this article.Īlthough the fire began on Aug. Most recently a Lander friend Camille Whiting and her husband James journeyed to the arch after reading about it in my book. My coffee table book, Wyoming’s 7 Greatest Natural Wonders, featured a nice story about that arch by Cody’s Dewey Vanderhoff. This all occurred in an obscure and dangerous mountainous area that features the Blackwater Arch, which for years was considered as possibly the largest natural arch in the world. Lightning started the fire that burned some 1,700 acres in the Shoshone National Forest west of Cody on that fateful day. In an obscure and difficult place to reach called Blackwater, some 15 Forest Rangers and Civilian Conservation Corps firefighters lost their lives on Aug.
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