Hard Job Done By Solid People

All through the night, small fires burned on the ridge above Riverside State Park. From a distance, these fires looked quaint and welcoming. Perhaps a bonfire to hold a sports rally around.

Quaint they were not. The small fires were the “afterburn” of a major wildfire that swept through 600 acres northwest of Spokane on Thursday. These smaller fires can turn deadly in a moment and no one knows this better than the men and women who fight fires. Norman Maclean, in his book, “Young Men and Fire,” talked of his own firefighting experiences this way:

“I was standing where the fire jumped the trail. At first it was no bigger than a small Indian campfire, looking more like something you could move close up to and warm your hands against than something that could leave your remains lying in prayer with nothing on but a belt.”

The past week has been filled with fire. Major, billowing fires burned in two places - 1,300 acres near Tum Tum and the Newkirk Road fire near Riverside State Park. The state park fire burned close to major residential areas. If it had hopped the Spokane River, thousands of homes in North Spokane would have been threatened.

Residents in those neighborhoods, and in Tum Tum, felt jittery for a few days. Jittery, but extremely thankful for the 900-plus firefighters who traveled from near and far to fight the blazes.

Firefighters set up temporary shelter at two fire camps, one at Albi Stadium, another at Long Lake Campground. You could see the men and women in the early morning, straggling to the chow line, their faces still dirty and weary from their 16-hour days before.

The state, local and private firefighters, coordinated by the Department of Natural Resources, got paid for their hard work. And hard it was. Yellowjackets, attracted to the firefighters’ yellow flame-retardant suits, stung them crazily. Those bonfires sprung up here and there, as if to torment the workers.

Firefighting is neither easy nor glamourous work. It can kill. Maclean’s book, for instance, tells the story of 13 smokejumpers who burned to death fighting a Montana fire in 1949.

So as many of the firefighters pack up and leave Spokane - to rest or to fight fires elsewhere - we thank them for all their dangerous, hard work. Those who don’t live around here might never return. We hope they do, but under more pleasant circumstances. Come back as tourists. The Inland Northwest is beautiful when the smoke clears.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rebecca Nappi/For the editorial board