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Insider's Look at Smokejumping
Stock Photo
Bruce L. Nelson w/introduction by FireLink.com
Smokejumpers are highly trained wildfire firefighters deployed to remote locations. They are parachuted in to to secure fires otherwise unreachable by local forces. By making use of high-altitude aircraft, smokejumpers are able to reach fires faster, cheaper, and better equipped than any road-bound vehicle.
Because smokejumping forces are limited to small teams, most of us don’t get a chance to see what these special forces battle. “Buck” Nelson, a 20-year smokejumping veteran, gives us an insider look into the smokejumping world…
Hang Ups…
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!
