tered so that groups are often close to fires and 

 can be recruited rapidly for early attack. They 

 learn quickly and fit well into fireline organiza- 

 tion. Also, they are physically able to stand 

 backbreaking work for many days at a time. 

 The pickup firefighters from the open labor 

 market are of similar caliber to those found 

 anywhere else; however, a few of them do re- 

 turn season after season and become topnotch 

 workers. 



Successful in western United States since 

 World War II days, smokejumping began in In- 

 terior Alaska in 1959 with 16 jumpers. Setting 

 up a smokejumper center in Fairbanks was a 

 major undertaking. Everything from a loft-dor- 

 mitory building to sewing machines, from ac- 

 quiring a DC-3 to modifying the doors of a Grum- 

 man Goose had to be done to make the jumper 

 force effective. Retraining dispatchers in new 

 procedures and transportation methods was also 

 necessary. Well-executed presuppression work 

 in this new phase of fire control paid off when 

 the actual suppression load began to increase. 

 Transportation 



Of Alaska's 5,000 miles of highway, 3,000 

 are blacktopped, 2,000 are graveled. Private 

 access roads go into homesteads, mining prop- 

 erty, and recreational sites, but the actual mile- 

 age of these roads is very small. However, since 

 most man-caused fires are along the highways 

 or on homesteads (fig. 57), a far greater number 

 of trucks, pickups, and tankers is used than one 

 would suspect by looking at road data alone. 



Aircraft are the hard core of the firefighting 

 attack force. As one official put it, "The possibil- 

 ity for successful fire control started the day we 

 received our three Grumman Gooses." These 

 short-field amphibious planes can land on small 

 lakes or sloughs close to fires; hence they are 

 constantly used for patrolling, servicing and sup- 

 plying, making initial and reinforcing attacks, 

 and for smokejumping. Single engine, 4-place 

 planes are kept busy on patrol, scouting, in- 

 spection, and administrative use. A Douglas C-47 

 (DC-3) is used primarily for smokejumpers; but it 

 can also move equipment, supplies, and non- 

 jumping firefighters. A P-51 fighter plane carries 

 the observer for long-range detection and scout- 

 ing,- it is also used as lead plane for chemical 

 retardant attack. 



Charter and contract planes carry all the 

 overload while the fire season is in full swing. 

 At the peak of the season, one sees the usual 

 assortment of larger chemical retardant applica- 

 tion planes, several makes of helicopters, and 

 both wheel and float type planes of the single 

 engine, 4-place category. The numerous Alaskan 

 commercial airlines furnish much of the heavier 

 point-to-point hauling. 



When fire conditions become critical and 

 commercial equipment is no longer available, 

 the military forces contribute many hours of fly- 

 ing. Heavy point-to-point hauling is done by 

 planes in the C-123 class; helicopters — even 

 the large double-rotor type — often do yeoman 

 duty during crucial times. 



DETECTION 9 



The critical need for early detection of fires 

 has been emphasized several times. A small 

 crew can usually (not always by any means) 

 handle a fire if they can attack before it begins 

 to take over its own destiny. Prior to about 

 1957, aerial detection was limited for a practical 

 reason: The attack force was not large enough 

 to act on more than a small percentage of the 

 fires; so there was no point in detecting all the 

 fires that did start. The advent of retardants and 

 smokejumpers now makes early detection of all 

 fires imperative if these two new weapons are 

 to be of maximum value. 



All the means of detection credited above 

 are somewhat haphazard, and at best are a 

 poor substitute for a continuous, trained detec- 

 tion organization. The Bureau of Land Manage- 

 ment has, since 1959, chartered a P-51, Mustang 

 fighter plane to follow in the wake of thunder- 

 storms in order to locate possible resultant fires. 

 This procedure has helped early detection of 

 many fires, but it has certain serious drawbacks: 

 One plane cannot adequately patrol 150 million 

 acres (the area of Montana and Idaho com- 

 bined); an observer cannot locate all small fires 

 from a fast-moving, high-flying plane; accurate 



'Statistical analysis of time elapsed between origin of fires 

 and their discovery proved unsuccessful because too many data 

 were lacking on the fire reports. Only about one-third of the 

 large (Class E) fires could be used; this fact presumably in- 

 fluenced the results to show that longer lags in discovery 

 time did not result in larger fires. The question will have to 

 remain a matter of conjecture until factual data are collected 

 on the behavior of free-burning fires from the time of origin. 



86 



