Smokejumping Risky, Rewarding They Are Not Strangers To Health Hazards

The policy of no health insurance is symbolic of smokejumping and firefighting in general.

The McCall smokejumpers are no strangers to health hazards - it’s their way of life. The U.S. Forest Service smokejumper station at McCall employs 66 of the 400 smokejumpers nationwide. That includes three of the 15 women.

Competition for smokejumping positions is national. The last McCall rookie class in the spring of 1995 accepted only nine people. Two hundred applied for a job paying $13 per hour, providing few benefits and no health insurance.

Jumpers come from all over the country, but many of those stationed at McCall come from the surrounding area.

Jumpers are considered a national resource, and stations share staff. Firefighters can be gone for several weeks at a time, traveling as far south as the Mexican border and as far north as Alaska, according to McCall resident and fifth-year jumper Francis Russo.

In spite of dangerous conditions, erratic hours and strenuous physical labor, smokejumping was attractive enough to Midvale native Bob Shoemaker that he remained on the job for 21 years.

He retired recently, and does not regret his long commitment and 333 jumps.

“I’ve seen it all,” he said, describing a rescue in Alaska where his partner broke his leg after jumping in high winds.

“I’ve got so many stories, someday I’m going to write a book,” he said.

He began working for the Forest Service clearing trails as a teenager. When he followed an older brother into smokejumping, he didn’t plan to stay more than 20 years. He says it was the adventure and purpose of the job that kept him coming back.

Another veteran, Dennis Geving, proudly recalls a rescue a couple of years ago in McCall. A bow hunter had been shot in the leg by a rifle hunter, and the team was called out.

They located the hunter, but trees were so thick the team finally had to jump right into them. They reached the hunter and immediately began cutting down trees to clear a place for a helicopter ambulance to land.

They got that done in two hours, just 15 minutes before nightfall. The hunter would not have survived the night, Geving said.

“I’ve had a lot of jobs, but none as rewarding as this one,” he said.

Jumpers are released from an airplane at 1,500 feet. Because the drop is so short, just nine seconds to the ground without a parachute, jumpers use a static line attached to the plane, which automatically pulls the rip cord.

“The type of jumping we do is pretty unique to firefighting,” said Don Felt, operations and training foreman.

The plane then drops in supplies. The team, which can be as small as two people, is on its own with two days of food and five gallons of water.

The idea of dropping firefighters into inaccessible places started in 1939. Many of the first firefighters were conscious objectors to the war.

McCall’s smokejumper station opened in 1943. The station is fairly self-sufficient, according to Felt. Jumpers are required to sew their own suits, packs and other gear. Only parachutes are purchased.

Jumpers mainly attack initial fires, as small as one burning tree. They stay until the fire is out. They go through the cinders with bare fingers to locate “hot spots” before leaving.

Firefighters try to keep fire from reaching the tops of trees. If that happens, a firestorm can occur. If fire jumps from the top of one tree to the next, firefighters can do little about it.

Few jumpers are injured or killed from jumping; the danger lies in firefighting itself.

Two years ago in Colorado, 14 smokejumpers died in a fire that raged out of control, including two from McCall.