Smokejumpers first must make team
WINTHROP, Wash. – Red-faced and sweating, 10 recruits at the North Cascades Smokejumper Base gasp for breath as they drop for push-ups in the middle of a country road, just midway through their morning 6-mile run.
More push-ups follow, along with sit-ups and pull-ups and a two-minute drill for getting into their firefighting gear. Gear on, the recruits climb a 45-foot tower and launch themselves off, coasting to the ground by high-wire as they practice jumping out of an airplane.
It’s only 11 a.m., and as fire experts tweak their predictions for a potentially damaging fire season ahead, eager firefighters battle for one of the few spots available each year on the nation’s smokejumping roster.
Increasing fire danger – and the ensuing demand for firefighters – means more smokejumpers are staying on the job longer. Positions are scarce, and competition for them is fierce.
“People are staying longer and doing this job, making more of a career. We need to retain these people for their knowledge and expertise,” said John Button, acting manager of the smokejumper base.
And added pressures for the coming fire season – a years-long drought, the potential loss of heavy air tankers due to safety concerns, and the mobilization of National Guard troops overseas – make additional resources even more important, Button said.
That includes the roughly 400 smokejumpers at nine bases run by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management.
In the Northwest, the North Cascades and Redmond, Ore., bases had hoped to hire a total of 20 more smokejumpers for the summer season. The 33-plane fleet, which was grounded due to safety concerns, is key for initial attack on wildfires.
Smokejumpers, too, are essential for initial attack on small or remote fires, but the Forest Service so far has chosen only to bring in more equipment, including smaller single-engine tankers and helicopters, said Mike Fitzpatrick, predictive services coordinator for the Northwest Coordination Center.
The request for additional smokejumpers was last made in 1992, when the Northwest was facing some serious fire danger, Fitzpatrick said. An additional 20 smokejumpers were hired in the region, which usually kept about 50 smokejumpers on hand.
But by 1994, the fire danger had dropped and valuable employees, now with two years’ experience, were laid off, he said.
“You probably could make a case for having more smokejumpers, but it’s a very expensive program, and I think one of the things people don’t see is more money coming to this program,” he said.
Typically, smokejumpers used to cover specific regions near their home base. Today, the North Cascades smokejumpers can travel from their home base in Winthrop to Montana, New Mexico or Colorado in a heartbeat, Button said.
Smokejumpers usually respond as the initial attack for small fires ranging in size from a quarter-acre to 10 acres or for fires in very remote areas. The need for such mobility could increase dramatically if air tankers are not returned to service, Button said.
“We can pick our spots and get equipment and crews in, and those crews are more rested than those who have to hike a mile or two in to the fire,” Button said.
The average age of an American smokejumper is 35, while the average age of recruits is 22. The 10 recruits trying to fill the few slots opening through attrition in Washington and Oregon this year ranged in age from 21 to 37.
“We try to hire good firefighters and then turn them into smokejumpers,” said Matt Woosley, a 20-year veteran smokejumper who leads the training for recruits. “There’s nothing you would do in your normal life that would make sense in this job.”
The first two weeks of training consist of heavy physical training – not to get the recruits into shape, but rather to get a sense of their character and induce stress to see how they react in difficult situations.