No evacuations ordered and no buildings threatened

Push to light them in the fall and spring represents a profound change in prevention strategy

Poor snow pack in 2017-18 contributed to largest Nevada wildfire ever

Customers may pay for legal settlements against enormous utility

University of Idaho researchers monitored nine of them

After 460,000 acres charred, firefighters nearing total suppression

Dry conditions making fighting fire difficult

Here we go

Behind he lines

Airborne Firefighter

One Foot In The Black

National Park Jump

Mann Gulch

Change Considered

75 Years of Smokejumping

Laird moved to hospice

DC-10 Air Tanker

Upcoming Season

Great Beer

Check out last summer's projects.

Both are ill

Guest Column Missoulian 10-5-15

Ex-Smokejumper Comments

NSA Provides Benefit To Forests Strapped For Maintenance Funding

NSA Provides Benefit To Forests Strapped For Maintenance Funding

Wildfire Today Website

Bring your plastic and cash

The End of the Doug

After 2,168 miles on Appalachian Trail, Buck takes on a long canoe paddle.

Ex-Redding Smokejumper

Nearly 1 million gallons loaded this year.

The Urban Connection Trail

Longstanding History

8KPAX.com

Old Air America Site To Be Visited

Jumping for 36 Years

Help The Fallen

Parcell to run for Missoula County Sheriff

Shasta-Trinity N.F. Working In Partnership to Help Disadvantaged Youth.

Seeds From Apollo 14

Smokejumpers & the CIA in Laos

On Sunday afternoon August 18, several Bases are jumped out.

Walt Currie Celebration of Life Service this Saturday

Joe Philpott was skiing outside Fort Collins Colorado when he was killed in an avalanche on Sunday.

Due to repeated poor air quality indexes associated with the Pole Creek Fire that and its proximity to the proposed site of the SMJK reunion next weekend, the committee has unanimously agreed to suspend the celebration until a later date.

Skies exploded with crashing thunder and strobing lightning as a tropical storm cell pounded the western end of the Mountain Communities with heavy rains Saturday, Aug. 11. Flooding water gushed down streets in Pine Mountain.

A lightning fire called the Wheats Fire was discovered early Monday morning had burned 20 acres in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness as of Tuesday afternoon, according to a report from the Stanislaus National Forest Service.

From 2,000 feet above fast-spreading forest fires, they made their descent armed only with hand-tools, backpacks and their trust in each other.

Fire officials in the greater Missoula area raised the fire danger to “very high” on Monday while fire crews battled more than a dozen new starts across southwest Montana.

Smokejumpers and ground pounders stayed busy Monday, digging line around new western Montana fires started by lightning in recent days.

8 BLM Jumpers from a Spike Base in Rawlins WY made the first ever fire jump in South Dakota on the Parker Peak Fire June 3, 2012

Author Norman Maclean is one of four people in this year’s class of inductees to the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame.

Air America is holding their reunion in San Diego May 30-June 3

Mark Hentze RAC 00 drowned in Colombia South America this past Tuesday when his camp site was hit by a flash flood.

The Missoula SmokeJumper Base hosted a contingent of Russian Smokejumpers in an effort to improve management of wildfire and agricultural burning.

Life of Smoke Jumper and Apollo Astronaut Stuart Roosa is chronicled in new book from Acclaim Press and Willie G. Moseley

A memorial service for Bob Steiner (Boise '71) will be held June 4

Eddy Ward, Missoula Smokejumper Unit Manager, is retiring and you are all welcome to see him off.

Smokejumpers spend their careers going to the wrong place at the wrong time. They parachute to the edge of wildfires deep in roadless wilderness, then fight the massive blazes with little more than hand tools.

Congratulations to Daren Belsby, the 6th base manager of the North Cascades Smokejumper Base.

Our current focus is to get Smokey’s message out to young adults via social media

Cliff's memorial service has been scheduled for July 12 at 11 AM at St. John's Cathedral in Boise.

He left jumping last Friday and started a new job with the State of Montana as head of their safety program. So much for retirement...

For those who may be interested, this Friday on CMT a new television series focused on our Smokejumpers will air on CMT.

Retired Fire Scientist Richard Rothermel made a presentation on the Forest Service pamphlet "The Race that Couldn't Be Won" at the Intermountain Fire Lab this week.

The Oshkosh Airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin is planning a huge gathering of DC-3's in recognition of the 75th anniversary of the DC-3.

Former Smokejumper brothers, Don and John Mathis, just returned from an Antarctica expedition.

Johnson Flying Service Ford Trimotor N8419 flew from Kalamazoo/Battel Creek Michigan Airport to Alma Michigan this week after being resotred by a group of dedicated volunteers.

Fifty years ago Monday, Montana’s most violent recorded earthquake struck near Yellowstone National Park.

Leonard Piper grew up on a farm with five brothers and three sisters. He was a popular student at Derry High School, where he took part in a play and enlisted in the Navy before graduating in 1945.

The Forest Service is investigating the death of 20 year old firefighter Thomas Marovich from Hayward Calif

As of this morning the fire was at 457 acres with one Type II hand crew, and a helicopter and engine on the fire.

“There was a really big open area to jump into, and I think I jinxed myself because I told my buddy, ‘Oh, I can land in that.’

Brett Stearns, 29, from Craig, Colo., was working with 12 other firefighters to clear trees at Freeman Reservoir, 15 miles northeast of Craig, said BLM spokeswoman Lynn Barclay.

The print captures two smokejumpers descending on a jump spot near a forest fire in the mountains above famous Rock Creek, Montana.

A Neptune Aviation P2V airtanker, Tanker 42, crashed Saturday morning, yesterday, killing all 3 on board.

The Smokejumper Smoked Imperial Stout beer, brewed by the Lefthand Brewing company, is now available in stores across the U.S.

400 friends, family, co-workers and mourners gathered at the Neptune hangar in Missoula this past Saturday to remember the crew from Tanker 09 which was lost on September 1 near Reno.

Earl Cooley, pioneer smokejumper, now 97 years of age is currently in rehab at Village Health Center after a serious bout of flu and pneumonia.

Expect the 2008 SSIP roll-out party (only one party this year) at the brewery sometime in late November or early December. SSIP will be available in many more states than it was in 2006

Earl Cooley turns a young 97 on September 26th

Neptune Tanker 09 crashed shortly after takeoff from Stead in Nevada on Labor Day. A left engine fire started the eventual crash killing
Gene Wahlstrom, 61, pilot, Greg Gonsioroski, 41, co-pilot, and Zachary VanderGriend, 25, mechanic.

Since the precedence was set using the Jolly(s), every active jumper might want to know what went
right and what could be done better.

Monday, 12 USFS smokejumpers started ram-air rookie training in Fairbanks. The jumpers are a representation from most of the FS bases.

Bill Cramer has accepted the Alaska BLM Smokejumper Base Manager position.

Stan Cohen and the Museum of Mountain Flying in Missoula have assembled a display on the movie "Red Skies of Montana".

That’s not a bird, or a plane and, despite the appearance of the red and blue canopy flying through the sky, it’s not a superhero either. It’s a smokejumper from the Alaska Fire Service on the first day of training.

More than 60 years ago, before helicopters were used for mountain and wilderness rescues, Helena's Dr. Amos "Bud" Little was making rescues from the sky.

Paying passengers will have a chance in August to take off from Midland Barstow Airport on a 79-year-old "Tin Goose" airliner that transported smokejumpers. The Ford Tri-Motor, piloted by former Midlander and veteran airline pilot Cody Welch, is to be at the airport Aug. 18-20.

Daryl Christian, prior NCSB and Redmond jumper from the 70's/80's, was one of those whose home was caught in the flood causing excessive damage.

with more moxie than money, the world's first and largest aerial firefighting force snuffs wildfires across 11 time zones

Project lets former smokejumpers reconnect while helping remodel Forest Service cabin

a pair of fire experts have been called in to help with the major California fires

Just published book includes chapters on early Fairbanks jump base

Want to own your own Frod Tri-Motor? One's for sale!

Bozeman Watch Co. chief executive Christopher Wardle presented Doug Houston, president of the National Smokejumper Association, with a check

Maclean's book profiles the firefighters and details the chronology of the perfect set-up for a perfectly disastrous fire.

Scott Anderson, McCall 84-03, and currently working at BIFC, was diagnosed with leukemia in June.

cards/thoughts can be sent to Jim Klump, PO Box 5, Forbestown, Ca 95941

Chief Justice Roberts comparing what smokejumpers do as firefighters to the law profession.

"What startled me, and eventually entrapped me in the story, was the personalities of the four people who died," Maclean said

"The real bottom line is OSHA and the Forest Service will hopefully work together to prevent tragedies like this in the future…. It's not about providing a scapegoat,"

As a lightning-ignited fire raged deep in the Sierra backcountry north of Truckee, Derek Kramer threw himself from a turbo-prop airplane at 1,500 feet and hurtled toward the ground.

"We want to make sure there's a permanent record of what happened up there," Savage said.

The award compliments Pat on his outstanding contributions in technical, safety and promotional parachute projects.

Former smokejumper spearheads effort to turn a closed base near Cave Junction into a museum honoring the airborne firefighters

Frenchtown Rural Fire District is currently accepting applications from young men and women to participate in FF/EMT training program.

Lots of new downloadable information on the Reunion 2007 link from this website.

T his is the offseason for the nation's wildland firefighters, yet from Oregon to Montana to New Mexico there is a palpable fear and anxiety among the men and women responsible for quelling Western forest fires.

The possibility of being held personally liable for actions during wildland fires has loomed over firefighters ever since four local firefighters died in the Thirtymile Fire.

Forestry officials don't attend the demo of the aircraft that assisted on Inland blazes.

Time is ticking away on a chronograph auction to benefit the Missoula-based National Smokejumpers Association and an injured Missoula youth.

Some Forest Service employees fear they too could be targeted for blame

A memorial web site has been created to honor the 5 USFS Firefighters killed in the line of duty on the Esperanza Fire.

Spencer Stanley Koyle, 33, died Thursday afternoon while fighting the Devil's Den Fire burning about three miles east of Oak City.

Four people died in the crash of a helicopter on a fire suppression mission in the Payette National Forest

Two pilots died after a long day battling wildfires

When fires first setup is when people like Lyndsey Lalicker get the call. Lalicker is a smokejumper working out of West Yellowstone.

10 firefighters deplyed shelters Tuesday in a fast moving fire on the Shoshone National Forest.

Firefighter Kenneth Jordan once hoped to lead one of the nation's elite teams of specialized wildfire and disaster incident managers. Not anymore.

One NSA trail project down, 15 to to go!

Jon McBride, NSA trail maintenance program chief, announced today that the 2006 NSA Trail is well underway.

Freddie Miller jumped out of airplanes for four years of his life.

Officials are predicting a "routine" fire season this year, said Bill Selby, smokejumper unit manager at the Redmond Air Center.

The National Smokejumper Center (NSC) was "born" during a meeting at the USFS West Yellowstone Smokejumper Base on April 27, 2006.

Evergreen International Aviation... reports the mammoth tanker is ready to fly

Keith Beartusk's career with the Bureau of Indian Affairs has gone beyond his wildest expectations.

As the parched Southwest braces for a record wildfire season, some lawmakers say they are worried that repeated cuts in the Forest Service budget have left it unprepared to fight forest fires.

The man credited with giving birth to modern aerial firefighting died Monday in Chico. Joseph B. Ely was 94.

The mission of the Feather River Hot Shots is to serve the public by going to national disasters and wildfires

The U.S. Forest Service is studying how to contract out more than two-thirds of its total workforce by 2009

early warnings that we are likely facing our earliest fire season ever

Federal officials say Arizona will have the necessary aerial resources to help battle a potentially huge fire season, despite the loss of half of their heavy airtanker fleet.

Warm, dry and fire prone. That's the prediction weather scientists, foresters and fire officials are making for New Mexico in the coming months.

There will be sufficient air tankers, helicopters and other firefighting resources to battle what could be severe wildfire season in the West, federal officials say.

The survivor of two terrible crashes, both related to her job as a smokejumper for the U.S. Forest Service, the Waitsburg woman is making a comeback.

It's such a perfect example of what the Forest Service considers a bad situation that the agency has used it as a scenario in a national training course.

Panelists Dale Bosworth, Chuck Keegan, Sherm Anderson and John Gatchell listen to Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., as he introduces a hearing on the Forest Service planning process Friday in Missoula.

State and federal agencies are giving away money to community groups trying to protect themselves from fire

Local area institutes fuel reduction program and agency coordination operation after disastrous fire season.

Robert Sallee seems a forthcoming yet reluctant celebrity of sorts.

Clearway Services of Whitebird won the contract for the Mann Gulch trail reconstruction and maintenance project

In 1945, when the soldiers finally got their orders to head to the West Coast, they thought they would be going to fight against Japan in the Pacific. Instead, their train made a pit stop in the mountains of Oregon.

My wife, Pat whom alot of MSO jumpers know, as a Nurse from St. Pats was deployed to Katrinia via a DMAT strike team.

Chief Farrar of the Jackson MS is requesting the following items for his Department. I can confirm that this is a legitimate request.

According to this mornings Smokejumper Status Report, 3 Boise Smokejumpers have deployed to the Southeast for Hurricane Katrina relief eforts.

3 Firefighters deployed fire shelters during a burnover on the Tarkio Fire west of Missoula Thursday Evenin

Department of Agriculture Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth today selected John Twiss to head the agency’s law enforcement and investigations branch.

On August 13 at the Willows Airport, the Mendocino National Forest will host an anniversary day marking the 50th year of aerial firefighting.

Several Fires broke out along Interstate 90 West of Missoula Thursday evening.

Carbon monoxide may have disoriented Novato firefighter Steven Rucker, who died while battling the fall 2003 Cedar wildfire.

The Forest Service says Margery Kuehn-Tabor, from Grangeville, Idaho, has a broken hip and other injuries.

Pilot and two Jumpers injured at Las Vegas

The Asian longhorned beetle has once again been discovered in Central Park and smokejumpers are on the scene to lend a hand

Smoke, flames attract dangerous insects, trainers say.

An Aero Union P3 Orion Air Tanker was lost on the Lassen National Forest Wednesday evening during a training flight.

Planting at Arlington Cemetery commemorates splashdown of Apollo

McChesney retired in January from a 35-year career battling fires for the Forest Service - a career that took him all over North America and gave him thousands of memories.

Bay Area artist says sketching helped pass time in wilderness

His hopes are to find some of the older jumpers for interviews and research the aerial fire protection service gaining historical information on the Russian smokejumper program.

an improved parachute system used by both agencies could decrease operational complexity without sacrificing current efficiencies and could produce economies of scale that would help reduce the cost of parachute procurement

A Hawkins and Powers C119 Flying Box Car was flown from Greybull Wyoming to Namibia for the film.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department is recruiting for the first time in seven years

Group blamed for Sand Dunes blaze will pay $695,000

Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., who drafted and is carrying the
Public Safety Officer Benenfit for Pilots in the House, won a sixth
term Tuesday.

The aerial firefighting company puts $32 million a year into the local economy. Its troubles have serious implications for the schools, services and the area at large.

Volunteer Historian needed to ensure NSA/Smokejumping history is accurately represented, maintained and preserved

John Button, a smokejumper for 31 years, has been named manager of the North Cascades Smokejumper Base

A pilot was killed when his helicopter crashed ferrying supplies to a remote fire in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.

"My main goal in life was to become a smoke jumper, and once I became one, I had no desire to do anything else," says Longanecker

"After a good lightning bust comes through, we'll get inundated with a couple of hundred (reports)," said Steve Arasim, the assistant emergency operations manager.

The Alaska Fire Service building at Fort Wainwright has become a crossroads for firefighting personnel who are rushing in from all over the state and country to help with the worst fire season in decades.

A civil suit has been brought against USFS for failures in Biscuit fire planning and recovery efforts

The Grants Pass Daily Courier published a series of 7 articles on the Biscuit Fire on July 14, 15, 16, 17.

"They are the World War II generation that we're losing thousands of by the day," former smokejumper Chuck Sheley said.

FSEER is suing the forest service over the names in the death investigation of the 2003 central Idaho wildfire

Hundreds ascend Storm King in honor of fallen firefighters

"We were supposed to save our own lives," he said. "Once we got here, we should have been able to save our own lives."

This briefing focuses specifically on FAA’s airtanker airworthiness jurisdiction and builds on a recent prior general briefing paper

Both reports emphasized inadequate airframe maintenance and overloading by some airtanker operators.

The government has cleared 5 P3 Orion tankers owned by Aero Union Corp. for service.

The Northern Rockies Coordinating Group has secured an additional 14 helicopters, nine single-engine air tankers and two water scooping aircraft.

Nationally, 6,937,584 wildland acres were burned by 88,458 fires in 2002.

Associated Airtanker Pilots Poosition Statement posted at airtanker.com

Montana Senator Conrad Burns(R) grilled the Forest Service Wednesday about getting heavy air tankers back in service.

The Missoula Chamber of Commerece has launched a "Green Ribbon" campaign to raise awareness about he importance of Air Tankers.

BLM Director Kathleen Clarke and Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth said yesterday that they couldn't justify using the old tankers because of safety risks.

The Oregon state forester has declared a state of emergency over the shortage of large air tankers

This week the government cancelled its contract for 33 heavy air tankers for this season.

The U.S. Forest Service could suspend or dismiss six employees for their handling of the forest fire that killed two firefighters near Salmon last summer.

Federal regulators said Friday that inadequate maintenance of aging aircraft is to blame in three fatal firefighting accidents over the past decade

PDF document of NTSB recommendation

Brenda Lee McFarland-Klakken, wife of Shane Klakken R-1 Leadplane pilot, passed away Thursday April 22, 2004, in Missoula after a year long battle with cancer.

The U.S. Forest Service is trying to diversify its California firefighting ranks by recruiting job applicants from areas with ethnic populations.

officials received an anonymous report of a shelter tearing near the shake handles.

The National Interagency Fire Center identified three areas with the greatest fire risks

"The National Guard has been a huge part of our firefighting effort,"

Fewer National Guard soldiers are available to fight forest fires this summer, so the state is looking for new ways to do the work.

They prepared for a shooting war in Europe and the Pacific, but ended up waging a secret war against fires and bombs in the forests of the western United States.

Salvage logging has become a contentious political issue in the United states in recent years, as millions of acres of national forests have burned annually

Experts point to ongoing drought as one of the big factors

A machine that turns leaves and other fire hazards into mulch is among fire-prevention strategies shown to federal officials visiting Florida.

"It's so much better from a standpoint of safety, managing fires instead of throwing flesh and blood at them."

Funding for wildfire fighting would go up significantly under President Bush’s budget plan, but the final total would still fall short of the actual money spent on fire suppression in recent years.

Several fatal crashes have prompted special driving courses for firefighting crews.

Troyer´s words, welcomed by the families, represented a shift away from a time when the deaths of firefighters were considered unavoidable casualties, like soldiers killed in battle.

Ellinger's squadron was left grounded during the Cedar Fire, because his pilots weren't certified by the CDF to fight fires.

As the U.S. Forest Service budget dwindles, nonprofit, community-based groups are stepping up to pick up the slack.

the crew heard a "thump." The pilot leveled the wings and the aircraft subsequently collided with an open pasture

Forest Service employees escape as plane goes down, bursts into flames

A Forest Service Beech Baron crashed in Missoula Monday Night in pea soup fog.

SkyDiver Cheryl Stearns, is making plans for a 130,000 foot jump from the stratosphere.

After 43 years as a firefighter's eye in the sky, Jim Haslip knows fire. Haslip spotted this year's Snowbank Fire and is convinced it never should have grown beyond a quarter-acre near Copper Creek.

Her courage and perseverance over the past decade, despite the disabling effects of cancer, osteoporosis, and Parkinson's disease will remain an inspiration to all who were a part of her life.

A minor update to Dennis Symes' note about Aviation Week's stories on aerial firefighting and smokejumpers

"I think we have to decide whether we really want to be in the aviation business, or whether we want to give that to somebody else," Hicks said. "To move into the future is going to cost a lot of money"

Book sales must be down for Douglas Gantenbein's book. He has written a piece o Slate trashing the Fire Service.

Windshields on six tankers were cracked by the debris, and cockpits filled with smoke. Another pilot saw a 4-by-8 foot sheet of plywood sail past at 1,500 feet.

the National Association of Forest Service Retirees on Tuesday lambasted a lawsuit filed against the agency by current employees who want an evaluation of the environmental and social effects of wildland firefighting.

the Northern Region spent $367 million fighting wildfires this past summer

an al-Qaeda terrorist now in detention had talked of masterminding a plot to set a series of devastating forest fires around the western United States

The late Rex Barber and Marion Carl will be among the first inductees.

New sources of information have surfaced who suggest the BLM investigation of the hazing was incomplete at best, a cover-up at worst.

An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Land Management found evidence of hazing and sexual harassment of rookie firefighters during training.

The whole point of the Healthy Forests Initiative and the National Fire
Plan is to get out of the fire suppression business...

Forest Service should study environmental, social effects, employees' association says

Pilot Carl Dolbeare, 54, and co-pilot John Attardo, 51, were flying the tanker owned by Minden Air Corp out of Nevada.

Minden-based firefighting air tanker crashed Friday in Southern California, killing its crew of two as they returned from a fire in Arizona, officials said.

A firefighting air tanker crashed Friday in the San Bernardino National Forest, bursting into flames and killing both people aboard, authorities said.

Nate Bashkirew dug his fingers beneath a clump of beargrass, looking for the heat that hides from firefighters after the flames subside.

Mara and Tory Kendrick were competitive cross-country skiers who could not get enough of the cold stuff. Now they cannot keep away from the heat.

"The politicians and the public need to realize this is not a risk-free business." - Bob Mutch

Allen and Heath did not know that the Cramer Fire would soon overtake them, racing uphill through the dry grasses of the steep slope.

California elementary school teacher and NSA member Tom Dwyer's summer job as a Smokejumper is highlighted.

Just four months short of 100 years old, Albert F. "Al" Gillis, well-known aviation pioneer, passed away in his sleep early Saturday morning, Aug. 2, 2003.

Just wanted to let you know that Ron's dedication service took place on Saturday, July 26th...

Kenny Roth had just taken off from a backcountry ranger station when all three engines of his Ford Tri-Motor failed. A few hundred feet above the ground, there was little Roth could do but try to land in the trees.

The crews walked to the Cache Bar boat ramp. Shortly thereafter, the rappellers called for a helicopter to pick them up, saying that it was becoming very smoky.

They are Jeff Allen, 24 of Salmon, Idaho and Shane Heath, 22, of Idaho’s Treasure Valley.

Two firefighters were killed yesterday when they were trapped by fast moving fire on the Cramer Fire.

The death of five air tanker pilots in 2002 prompted the federal government’s creation of a blue-ribbon panel to study its aerial fire-fighting business.

The Region 5 Smokejumper Unit located at the Northern California Service Center (NCSC) in Redding is currently preparing to advertise a GS-8 Smokejumper Captain/Spotter position and a GS-6 Senior Smokejumper position.

Rain soaked parts of a mountain wildfire for the first time since the blaze broke out nearly a month ago and destroyed more than 300 homes and cabins, helping firefighters who are trying to keep it from growing.

"It's kind of a cul-de-sac career. Once you get to a certain point, there's not a lot of movement," said Atteberry. "But it's addictive when you have the winter off and all you think about is coming back and doing it some more. I guess there are greater rewards than money."

With more than 200 jumps under his belt, he wasn't worried about the parachuting part. It was the idea of getting out of the lake that he didn't like.

The Senate voted Friday to approve $314 million in emergency firefighting spending.

State and Federal Officals called South Central Montana a Powder Keg this week.

The unidentified detainee said he hoped to create several large, catastrophic wildfires at once, mimicking the destructive fires that swept across Australia in 2002

Fire managers consider it one of the two most troublesome fires in the nation, along with the Aspen fire in Arizona

The Baker's Hole Fire, 3 miles from the West Yellowstone SmokeJumper Base was estimated at 250 acres Monday afternoon and growing.

A drop in humidity calmed a wildfire burning a half-mile from an exclusive desert enclave Monday, greatly reducing the danger to dozens of houses, officials said.

Crews battling to protect Taos Pueblo and the tribe's watershed from a fire that has burned 3,000 acres near the ancient Indian village expect no help from the weather today.

A windblown wildfire that already has destroyed more than 300 mountaintop homes pushed into a previously untouched subdivision, burning five cabins and threatening 60 others, a fire official said Saturday.

Dillon Montana resident and Rocky Mountain College student Lindsey Lalicker graduated from rookie training in Missoula last week.

The Apex Fire, started by two teenagers playing with matches, has grown to 28,500 acres.

Record drought continues to cover much of the central west. High winds are expected at the sight of two of the regions hotspots.

A Cotton City, New Mexico, fire chief was killed Thursday evening when a tanker truck he was driving overturned and fell down a canyon.

Three teenagers were booked on arson charges Friday for allegedly setting at least one of two wildfires that forced people to evacuate homes along the Rio Grande just north of downtown.

With the tally at about 350 homes, firefighters are beginning to have success holding lines of protection for remaining structures SE of the besieged town of Summerhaven.

the Aspen fire had dramatically grown to over 12,400 acres while approximately 900 firefighters have joined the fight.

It is expected to be weeks before the estimated 1,000 or so firefighters that are now converging on the blaze will have a chance to get a handle on it.

BIA Firefighter Rick Lupe 42, died Thursday at the Arizona Burn Center. Rick received burns over 33% of his body during a prescribed burn on Sawtooth Mountain in Arizona on May 14th.

The town of Summerhaven, AZ lost from 200 to 250 homes yesterday and according to fire officials it's far from over.

The Governors of four western states signed a letter of endorsement in support of much of President Bushes Healthy Forests Initiative Wednesday.

Reporters with proper training looking to cover wildland fire fighting efforts in the Black Hills will have unprecedented access starting this fire season.

Memorial Dedication
June 14, 2003
1:00 p.m.

Montana Gov. Judy Martz, chairman of the Western Governors Association, has called the governors of five western states (Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Arizona) to Missoula, Montana for a three day summit to discuss wildland fire issues and forest health.

CNN presents a look at wildland firefighting this Sunday!

Four large fires were reported today by the National Interagency Fire Center.

If passed into law, the measure will codify the Clinton era Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which protects 58.5 million acres of roadless areas in National Forests from road construction and most logging.

According to the report, the Forest Service has failed to link performance objectives with actual outcomes...

"The mindset in the past was that if you have a tanker base, you'll get your airplane," Davis said in a phone interview Monday. "This year, we've assigned tankers to a tanker base just as a place to start."

The changes will limit the procedural footholds forest activists have used to block what they contend are ill-advised logging projects billed as reducing fire danger.

P2V Neptune Tanker 09 is carded and on contract in Missoula awaiting assignment by the NIFC.

Gov. Janet Napolitano signed an emergency proclamation last Thursday that seeks federal money to combat Arizona’s extreme wildfire danger.

Alaska Smokejumpers are working a 1000 acre fire near Anderson.

And because land managers traditionally suppressed fires for years, that forest and others like it are packed with dry, highly flammable undergrowth

6 CDF Firefighters have filed suit over the CDF Chaplain Corps.

With parched forests and weather conditions that are expected to remain dry and hot, fire officials are braced for another dangerous season of wildfires.

Along with lush grass everywhere, the CDF is confronting a million-dollar cut in state funding. One casualty: 22 fire lookout towers are closed.

The Greybull Tanker Base and Hawkins & Powers Aviation, Inc. would like for you to join us for a Memorial Dedication in honor of Tanker 130 and Tanker 123 crew members, Steve Wass, Craig LaBare, Mike Davis, Ricky Schwartz, and Milt Stollak.

3 firefighters deployed shelters on the A Bar Fire near Sierra Vista AZ on Wedneday.

Gusty winds predicted today may hamper nearly 50 firefighters battling a 153-acre wildland fire that had threatened three ranch buildings near Redington.

The upcoming Colorado fire season looks to be relatively mild due to a fair amount of precipitation so far this year.

An article published in this month's Outside magazine calls for the elimination of all smokejumper bases.

An environmental group has warned the U.S. Forest Service that it intends to sue unless the agency comes into compliance with environmental laws covering the use of fire retardant while fighting wildfires.

The Healthy Forest Restoration Act, whose drafters say is aimed at stemming the destruction caused by wildfires, is winning support in Washington D.C. But Eagle County's congressman, Boulder Democrat Mark Udall, says it leaves homeowners vulnerable and "unnecessarily guts important environmental laws."

According to the Missoulian Federal Judge Don Molloy has halted logging of burned areas and restoration work in areas of the Lolo National Forest burned in 2000.

A partial list of the 2003 Air Tanker Assignments

The House Resources Committee approved a wildfire plan today that supporters say will return forest management to people who know the forests and reduce the threat of wildfires

FAIRBANKS -- Alaska fire officials are worried that wildland fire season could come early to the Interior unless nature cooperates with a healthy dumping of snow or rain in the coming month.

In a case that is becoming all too familar in the West, a Wyoming Firefighter is going to court over his right to free speech.

"Plum Creek Timber Co. "respectfully declines" to take any responsibility for two wildfires ignited by loggers on its timberland at Lolo Pass during the summer of 2000 - or for the $11 million the U.S. Forest Service spent fighting those fires after they spread onto national forest land. In letters to the Clearwater National Forest, an attorney for Plum Creek pointed the finger at the independent contractors hired to log two tracts of company-owned forestland."

a Canadian Contractor has been awarded the bid for heavy Air Tankers in Alaska this year

The State of Colorado has contracted for a total of 5 single engine 800 gallon Air Tankers this year and has purchased 10 additional Engines to be positioned around the state.

The Missoulian ran an interesting article on Neptune Aviation on Sunday April 13.

The Fire Department of New York (FDNY) and the Forest Service have established a training program in incident command management for New York City firefighters to better respond to terrorist incidents and natural disasters.

1024 firefighers from Montana have been deployed to East Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas to search for Space Shuttle debris.

Recently released Blue Ribbon Panel's report to identify facts and key issues related to safety and operational performance.