Wildland Firefighting Stays in the Blood

Andi Bourne wrote an excellent but incredibly sad Editor’s Note on behalf of the young firefighter that we lost. 

I, too, have several years of fire experience, all on the Lolo National Forest: my first three as one of the first women in Helitack, then a fourth as engine crew foreman until a nearly fatal accident ended my career as an active firefighter and for five more seasons in fire related work – conducting industrial fire inspections on logging and mining operations (1975-spring of 1985).

The year of my near fatal accident (1979) there were three firefighting aircraft related fatal accidents: one in Idaho when a fixed wing plane went down with an entire crew (I believe one person survived that crash), another in Montana when a retardant plane crashed near Petty Mountain (I saw that plane immediately before it crashed; no survivors) and the third was a helicopter that I believe went down in Colorado (no survivors).

Andi articulated so well the acute pain of hearing of his tragedy.

Wildland firefighting stays in the blood long after our careers end, as well as the never ending feeling of brother- and sister-hood for all firefighters.