Article December 11, 2000 Issue

Thank you, firefighters

Volunteer firefighter goes into action in Montana.

By Kim Shippey

At the height of the worst wildfire season in recent United States history, Army reservist and volunteer firefighter David Graham stood shoulder to shoulder with his crewmates from Maine in the face of an approaching fire. They were operating at elevations of up to 6,000 feet in the mountains of the Bitterroot National Forest in western Montana.

Their job was to set backfires that would deny the encroaching wall of flames the fuel to keep burning, in the effort to save several homes in its path. To do this, they were required to wait until the flames got to within a hundred feet of them—and then work fast!

"It wasn't easy to breathe at that elevation, after hiking with our equipment into areas that bulldozers couldn't reach," said David. "We watched the fire come down the mountain toward us, flames soaring 120 feet into the sky, which was filled with black smoke. The sun was a red disk. The air was filled with noise, like a hundred freight trains coming straight for us. The updraft of the wind feeding the fire was trying to pull my helmet off my head. The burly welder next to me screamed that he wanted to see his children again. I thought of my own three children and knew how he felt.

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