Smokejumpers dive in to fight US wildfires
RIO PUERCO ( New Mexico): Flying 914m above desert scrubland in New Mexico, Nick Stanzak taps the first smokejumper on the shoulder to signal it’s his turn to leap from the twin-engine plane.
In pairs of two, a team of eight elite firefighters from Idaho and Montana parachuted down to the dry Rio Puerco tributary of the Rio Grande.
Each carried 44kg of gear as part of regular training to be ready to be dropped close to wildfires that might break out in remote areas of the Western US.
Nearly 30 wildfires are currently burning – including an Arizona blaze that forced the evacuation of thousands of people plus others in California, New Mexico and Utah.
Federal officials this week raised the preparedness level for US firefighting forces because of the heightened fire activity.
The smokejumpers are anxiously awaiting their next assignment, with tonnes of gear packed and boxes of supplies, tools and food taped up and packaged to withstand being dropped from the planes while moored to parachutes.
“We’ll be ready when the call comes,” Stanzak said.
“Who knows what the weather is going to do in a month, or even two weeks from now.”
There are about 450 smokejumpers nationwide, some working for the US Forest Service and others for the federal Bureau of Land Manage- ment as a joint force that can be mobilised as the fire season shifts from one place to another.
Smokejumping dates back to the 1930s, when a regional forester suggested it as a way to quickly provide initial attacks on forest fires. They say they’re like other firefighters but just have a different way of getting to fires.
“Quite honestly, jumping out of an airplane is no different than us driving somewhere. It’s actually safer,” Stanzak said.