First, the smell: Inside the jump plane, it’s Jet-A fuel mingled with stale sweat and fresh chewing tobacco. Then, the fire: 1,500 feet above the forest floor, cramped between Kevlar and parachutes, ...

Northwest Montana Posse of Westerners history organization presents a program titled “History of Smokejumping – A Continuing Saga" (Part 2 in a series) by Fred Cooper of Missoula, Monday, Sept. 19.

A smokejumping and wildland fire education center could be on its way to the Redmond Air Center. Deschutes County commissioners heard a proposal from the U.S. Forest Service on Monday to build a 5,500 ...

Are we in the age of megafires? Many scientists think the era of megafires is upon us, and not just because of the massive fires Russia suffered this year. Three of the eight worst forest fire years ...

Nick Hampe has worked seven years in wildland firefighting, and remembers while working on an engine crew in Montana seeing smokejumpers arriving on a fire by air. “I was just kind of sold on maybe ...

Alaska is heading into wildfire season, and firefighters are gearing up to be ready for it. That includes smokejumpers, who parachute in to fight some of the most remote fires, often providing the ...

As part of her annual spring training before another summer of parachuting out of aircraft to tend to fires in remote wilds around the West, Martha Schoppe had a choice. The Coloradan could opt to run ...

1917 — The U.S. Forest Service started using aircraft in California for fire detection. This was the first use of aviation in fire management. 1929 — Supplies for firefighters were first dropped from ...

WINTHROP, Wash. (AP) -- 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 ...

New perk: Easily find new routes and hidden gems, upcoming running events, and more near you. Your weekly Local Running Newsletter has everything you need to lace up! Subscribe today. Not as difficult ...

"I will remind you that you wrote some time ago about J.B. Bruce's scheme of dropping men from airplanes for firefighting. I am willing to take a chance on most any kind of a proposition that promises ...