Smokejumper

thumb|Fully outfitted smokejumpers boarding a [[Short C-23 Sherpa aircraft in Missoula, Montana, en route to a fire in the Idaho panhandle, July 1994]]

A smokejumper is a specially-trained wildland firefighter who provides an initial attack response on remote wildfires. They are inserted at the site of the fire by parachute. This allows firefighters to access remote fires in their early stages without needing to hike long distances carrying equipment and supplies. Traditional terrestrial crews can use only what they can carry and often require hours and days to reach fire on foot. The benefits of smokejumping include the speed at which firefighters can reach a burn site, the broad range of fires a single crew can reach by aircraft, and the larger equipment payloads that can be delivered to a fire compared to pedestrian crews.

As of 2025, there are only five countries that currently house smokejumpers: Russia, China, Canada, United States and Malaysia. These countries often coordinate exchange programs in which smokejumpers travel to aid in intense wildfire seasons.

In 1942, permanent jump operations were established at Winthrop, Washington, and Ninemile Camp, an abandoned Civilian Conservation Corps camp (Camp Menard) a mile north of the Forest Service's Ninemile Remount Depot (pack mule) at Huson, Montana, about northwest of Missoula. The first fire jumps were made by Rufus Robinson and Earl Cooley at Rock Pillar near Marten Creek in the Nez Perce National Forest on July 12, 1940, out of Ninemile, followed shortly by a two-man fire jump out of Winthrop. In subsequent years, the Ninemile Camp operation moved to Missoula, where it became the Missoula Smokejumper Base. The Winthrop operation remained at its original location, as North Cascades Smokejumper Base. The "birthplace" of smokejumping continues to be debated between these two bases, the argument having persisted for about 70 years.

The first smokejumper training camp was at the Seeley Lake Ranger Station, over northeast of Missoula. The camp relocated to Camp Menard in July 1943. Here, when not fighting fires, the men spent much time putting up hay to feed the hundreds of pack mules that carried supplies and equipment to guard stations and fire locations. To work fires, the men, organized into squads of eight to fifteen, were stationed at six strategic points, also known as "spike camps": Seeley Lake, Big Prairie, and Ninemile in Montana; Moose Creek and McCall in Idaho; and Redwood Ranger Station in southwestern Oregon at the edge of Cave Junction. The men worked from other spike camps as well, including some in Washington.

Relations with the military

After observing smokejumper training methods at Seeley Lake in June 1940, then-Major William C. Lee of the United States Army went on to become a major general and establish the 101st Airborne Division.

In 1940, Army Dr. (Captain) Leo P. Martin was trained by the U.S. Forest Service Smokejumper Parachute Training Center in Seeley Lake, Montana as the first 'para-doctor' (predecessor to USAF Pararescue).

In May 1978, members of the Army National Guard's 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and other western military units briefly began airborne training at the Missoula Smokejumper School. Although in years past, the army had conducted basic airborne training at various locations, it has since been consolidated at Fort Benning, Georgia.

WWII-era

The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion gained fame as the only entirely black airborne unit in United States Army history. The 555th was allegedly not sent to combat because of segregation in the military during World War II. In May 1945, the unit was sent to the West Coast of the United States to combat forest fires ignited by incendiary balloons sent by the Japanese Empire, an operation named "Operation Firefly". Although this threat did not fully materialize, the 555th fought numerous other forest fires while there. Stationed at Pendleton Field, Oregon, with a detachment in Chico, California, 300 unit members participated in firefighting missions throughout the Pacific Northwest during the summer and fall of 1945, earning the nickname "Smoke Jumpers". The 555th made a total of 1,200 jumps to 36 fires, 19 from Pendleton and 17 from Chico. Only one member, PFC Malvin L. Brown, was killed on August 6, 1945, after falling during a let-down from a tree in the Umpqua National Forest near Roseburg, Oregon. His death is the first recorded smokejumper fatality during a fire jump.

Around 240 workers from Civilian Public Service (CPS) camps worked as smokejumpers during World War II. An initial group of 15 men began training in parachute rigging in May 1943 at Seeley Lake, and a total of 33 completed jump training in the middle of June, followed by two weeks of training in fire ground control and first aid. About 500 training jumps were made by the first 70 CPS smokejumpers in 1943, who went on to fight 31 fires that first season. Their number increased to 110 in 1944, and to 220 in 1945, as more equipment became available from the War Department. Twenty-nine jumpers battled the remote Bell Lake fire in September 1944, among 70 fires suppressed that year, and 179 were fought in the Missoula Region alone by September 1945, with other jumpers assigned to McCall and Cave Junction. The last CPS smokejumper left the service in January 1946.

The Smokejumper Project had become a permanent establishment of the USFS in 1944. In 1946, the Missoula Region had 164 smokejumpers, many of them recent military veterans, college students, or recent college graduates. New bases were opened in Grangeville, Idaho, and West Yellowstone, Montana.

Most smokejumpers of the era were not career professionals, but seasonal employees lured by the prospect of earning as much as $1,000 over a summer. They tended to be well-behaved, self-motivated, and responsible. Squad-sized and larger crews were supervised by foremen who were career wildland firefighters and experts in all types of wildfires.

Mann Gulch fire

The fire with the greatest toll of smokejumper deaths was the Mann Gulch fire in 1949, which occurred north of Helena, Montana, at the Gates of the Mountains area along the Missouri River. Thirteen firefighters died during the blowup, twelve of them smokejumpers. This disaster directly led to the establishment of modern safety standards used by all wildland firefighters. Author Norman Maclean described the incident in his book Young Men and Fire (1992).

Smokejumper crews worldwide

Smokejumpers are employed by the Russian Federation, United States (namely the United States Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management), Canada (in British Columbia). and Malaysia.

Russia

In Russia, smokejumpers are firefighters who parachute or rappel, or both, into fires. They work for the Aerial Forest Protection Service, or Avialesookhrana. This agency represents the largest cohort of smokejumpers worldwide, employing up to 4,000 individuals who protect of land across 11 different time zones. This makes the Avialsookhrana the primary defences for half of Russia's wildland. Smokejumpers are located at 340 Avialsookhrana bases and dispatched in groups of differing sizes according to the situation at hand. Rappelling crews consist of a maximum of 20 firefighters, while parachuting teams are usually made up of five or six. and operates the only smokejumper crews in Canada. There are two crews located in the northeast of the province.

North Peace Smokejumpers in Fort St. John, British Columbia
Omenica Smokejumpers in Mackenzie, British Columbia

United States

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) house 320 smokejumpers yearly, across nine bases in the western third of the country, in Idaho (3), Montana (2), California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. In 2020, across all the bases, 1,130 jumps were executed, with a total of 5211 days spent on initial attack. As of August 2021, nine smokejumper crews operate in the United States; seven by the USFS and two by the BLM.

Operated by the U.S. Forest Service:

NorthwestRedmond Smokejumpers in Redmond, Oregon; North Cascades Smokejumpers in Winthrop, Washington
Northern CaliforniaRegion 5 Smokejumpers in Redding, California
Northern RockiesMissoula Smokejumpers in Missoula, Montana; Grangeville Smokejumpers in Grangeville, Idaho; West Yellowstone Smokejumpers in West Yellowstone, Montana
Great BasinMcCall Smokejumpers in McCall, Idaho

Operated by the Bureau of Land Management:

Great BasinBoise Smokejumpers in Boise, Idaho
AlaskaAlaska Smokejumpers in Fort Wainwright, Alaska

Malaysia

Pasukan Khas Udara Bomba (PASKUB) () is a command for elite smokejumper supported by helicopters from JBPM Air Wing.

Smoke Jumpers Unit () is an elite unit of JBPM and trained in parachute insertion (static line and freefall), helicopter-borne operation and jungle survival. The formation of elite Smoke Jumper began in 2000 after JBPM sent five firefighters to enter the Basic Static Line Parachuting Course held at Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) Sempang Air Force Base, Sungai Besi as the pioneer team Smoke Jumpers. The course was conducted by RMAF Special Operations Force, PASKAU until 2007 when JBPM established their own Static Ramp Air Course. Among the task of Smoke Jumper is:

Combat Air Rescue Medic
Medical Evacuation (Medevac)
Deep jungle/Isolated Area Firefighting Operations

Smoke Jumpers enjoys good relations with Malaysian Armed Force Special Operations Forces as they always train with RMAF PASKAU, Malaysian Army Grup Gerak Khas from PULPAK and Royal Malaysian Police VAT 69 Commando. PASKUB members are selected from various units including STORM, MUST and EMRS.

China

Due to the logistics issues of boots-on-the-ground firefighting, in 1960 the (a predecessor of the People's Armed Police Forestry Corps, which was disbanded in 2018) received 122 paratroopers and founded the Forest Police Smokejumper Company () for rapid deployment against wildfires. On 27 May 1965 the Company saw its first action, deploying 10 Smokejumpers to assist with fighting a wildfire in Daxing'anling Prefecture. In 1978, the Smokejumper Company was renamed to the Airborne Detachment (). Between its establishment and 1981, the Airborne Detachment was deployed to fight a total of over 325 wildfires, however its fate past 1981 is currently unknown.

Equipment and gear

Aircraft

Smokejumping crews prefer the use of fixed wing aircraft rather than helicopters as they typically carry more passengers and larger payloads. At the Fort St. John base in British Columbia, Canada, modified DC-3 planes are used to carry thirteen jumpers and two spotters. Smokejumper personnel take deliberate precautions before deciding whether to jump a particular fire. Multiple factors are analyzed, and then a decision is made as to whether jumping the fire is safe. Bases tend to look for highly motivated individuals who are in superior shape and have the ability to think independently and react to changing environments rapidly. Many smokejumpers have previous experience as hotshots, who provide a strong foundation of wildland firefighting experience and physical conditioning.

Recruitment

Prior to employment as a smokejumper in the United states, applicants are required to have one year of wildland firefighting experience as a minimum. It is said that competitive applicants range closer to three years of experience.

In popular culture (chronological)

The 1952 film Red Skies of Montana is loosely based on the Mann Gulch fire
Smokejumpers are featured in the 1985 novel Wildfire by Richard Martin Stern
The 1996 film Smoke Jumpers is loosely based on Don Mackey's life. Mackey was a smokejumper and one of the 14 fatalities of the 1994 South Canyon fire. In the movie, Mackey (played by Adam Baldwin) pursues job-related accolades while his marriage disintegrates.
In the 2002 made-for-television movie SuperFire, a disgraced pilot joins a group of smokejumpers as they attempt to save a town from a raging wildfire. This film is recognised for its inaccurate description of smokejumper practices.
In the television show Entourage, Vincent Chase lands a lead role in an action film called Smokejumpers in an episode airing in 2008.
Smokejumpers are described in Philip Connor's 2011 book Fire Season.
Author Nora Roberts's 2011 novel Chasing Fire details the lives and loves of a group of smokejumpers at Missoula Smokejumper Base.
Author M. L. Buchman's Firehawks Smokejumpers Trilogy, published in 2014 and 2015, follows a team of fictitious Oregon-based smokejumpers.
The 2019 American family comedy film Playing with Fire follows a group of smokejumpers who must watch over three children who have been separated from their parents following an accident. The film stars John Cena, Keegan-Michael Key, John Leguizamo, Brianna Hildebrand, Dennis Haysbert, and Judy Greer.
2021 film Those Who Wish Me Dead based on the book by Michael Koryta.