haven't released books. you can watch them online on our web scythe -- website on booktv.org. >> next up on book tv firefighter jason ramos talks about changes. >> t -- it's my pleasure to introduce jason ramos, threatens our beautiful forest and our lives. this topic is poynant for us. jason has devoted 30 years of

his life to the fire service. he progressed from the streets of la to career that began at the age of 17 can the volunteer riverside fire department. now, a smoke jumper, the birth police of smoke jumping. he is oftenly in good shape. take a look at him. [laughter] >> he loves gadgets. he founded product research, llc. prepare yourselves for a thrill evening with the truly

exceptionally individual brought to you courtesy of marrow, please join me in welcoming jason. [applause] >> hi, folks, how are you? i don't want to hear the murphy's law. you're testing me here. so what i'm going to do about five minutes, it's about 22 minutes. you guys can go home and watch on the web. it was done by a friend of mine, air force's gentlemen. that's the voice. four years ago at our base,

shows a glimpse of what we do without the hollywood. most of the time we get approached by the big production companies and they want a lot of oh and ah. you want to hit play and -- [inaudible conversations] >> was that on? went back to the beginning. it is always on time, so -- [laughter] >> you can see the amount of

time is back into pause mode. >> patriot profiles printed without commercial interruptions by smith&wesson. >> yeah, go back out of that. just go back. >> yeah. >> just go back to the first screen. y'all can watch it by yourselves

and we'll talk in five minutes. [laughter] >> without commercial interruption. i can just tell you it doesn't work. yup, this is it. it's the video. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> it's not the uniform that define it is warrior, the -- not >> for those who combat fire is a uniform to deflect on branches, the flames rage.

fire like mother nature herself a butte yet an unpredictable force. fire can save or take -- it provides the blessings of light, heat, sense of security, other benefits to mankind. in its rage fire is the all consuming dragon that consumes life. ♪ ♪ ♪

>> if you're going to jump from a perfectly good airplane, it's one to look for a flat ground and perfect and another to intentionally jump into the proximity. >> when i go there, there was this group of guys there that had jumped in and parachutes and thought that was unique. those that come to the calling do so with years of wild land fire fighting under our belt. >> i had never smet a smoke

jumper. he just kind of staired at me. >> professional like sports league. people know that smoke jumpers are well versed, highly motivated and superbly trained. >> it was readily accessible to me. >> he knew he wanted to be a smoke jumper before teenager. i had two brothers and two cousins as well. >> he started jumping when he was 19 year's old. i was very well versed on what i needed to do. >> it requires a lot of no how and physical stamina to be a

smoke jumper. [inaudible] >> we don't just hire a city firemen from la city. he has to have have some wildlife experience. two to three years. >> yes, sir. >> have fun. >> after three years as a wild land wild fighter. >> you start with and totally depend on the badge of people, usually not everybody that tries is going to make it. >> after a person goes through rooky -- rookie training, not

everyone is going to make it. a lot of people -- like boot camp. >> there is a standard in that. there are jumpers in this profession 30-40 year's old and can run and outperform most of the candidates. >> we have to be in good shape to do this job. before they put the stamp of approval 10-mile in the wilderness and get out safely. >> this is one of the things that do make a difference. we have all these things and we are not going to leave and it goes out in bag. >> you get the pack out standards, 3 miles.

>> that's a huge part of my job if you can't parachute and get out safely. >> we had people get out and in the third or fifth jump decided it wasn't for them. >> either or both will be reasons -- >> that's what the 46 weeks is, to get as much grasp to the individual because once you enter the aircraft, doesn't matter if you have a sore throat. you need to get that mission done and get back to base. >> it is quickly drawn out of you by old heads and experienced jumpers.

there's been a very small and select group of jumpers that have gone. >> in fighting forest fires, time is precious even the fastest combination of vehicle and foot travel permit small fires to gain momentum before they can be reached and controlled. in 1940 came the smoke jumpers. >> the dawn of smoke jumper didn't even get off the ground -- >> okay, folks, we are going to stop it there so we can -- you like that so far, though? how was that? [applause] >> so you can imagine the work that i had to get through to get the approval to have that done. that was days of me pulling my hair, i don't have much hair as you can see. i did have to do some smoke screens and camouflage because there's always rules, rules that

blow your nose and you know, i worked for you guys and we work for the people in the united states and today there wasn't a very good documentary out there. richard stewart calls me, a friend of a friend and gave me his word on his background working in the air force, he was a friend of a friend and trust him. please go home and watch the rest of that. amazing gentlemen that brought us this. so hope you enjoyed and hope you go home and watch the rest of it. any questions so far? i know we have a mic up here. there's so much from 1939 to

date. we'll try to get it all by the time you guys leave today you'll kind of understand what we do. is there any smoke jumpers in the audience? don't be hiding. where are you from? [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> the other gentlemen. very hard base rookie special digit temperatures. they are all hard. it's not easy. was it easy for you guys? [laughter] >> and that's usually the response we get. jason, if you get anything in the world, anything, right now gogo -- to go back and do rookie

training again, gotcha. sports, it just depends how much you want to do that. in the program that's four to six weeks is a test to that. so they are going to test you every single day for the four to six weeks. i remember one of the things, there was a trainer, not every day, but mostly every other day. you know round of applause. you made it today. you might not be here tomorrow. have a goodnight. [laughter] >> we are going to keep it pg-13. i want to take this guy. so he was right, though, that

you might not be there the next day and they bring that reality back to you. you're not guarantied that position. it's a privilege. it's not an honor. you're not guarantied to become a smoke jumper. you learn to take stuff minute by minute and day by day and that was my day at the shower, i'm here today, we'll see what happens tomorrow. any questions so far before we move on? smoke jumpers in the united states has a dynamic number. as we talked, just think dynamic, since 1939 today, we are still under 6,000. last year we were like 5,008 -- 5,800. turn on your mic.

test, test. is that better? all right. now, i can move. >> you can jump now. [laughter] >> is there room back there. there we go. that makes me happy. so less than 6,000 to date. the two gentlemen back there i can grab their gnomes go on my phone and pull the database and i can see where they rookie if they are ligate. there's not many of them. [laughter] >> to date, through the fire season, a very fluctuating number. i don't believe it's over 500. in that we have high school teachers, professors, at our base we had two pair rescue

autoof the air -- out of the air force. we have people coming and going. some were caught for summer vacation to come back to duty, that's not my thing of vacation. high school teachers love to come back and these guys, he's a high school teacher. i believe he's 54 and he ran a mile and a half in just under nine minutes and 30 seconds. that guy is still a savage. anything else. it's amaze to go see a guy, you know, in late 50's go out there and pass a 20-year-old, 30-year-old. not even breathe hard and smile

at you. thank you. and in that, you know, i never classified -- i just called smoke jumpers, but a lot of people ask how many females. there's say there's less than 8%. we have the count. same physical fitness, we have no handicap in that 4-6 weeks for gender color, race, i don't care if you have purple, once they pass, females, funny, people come and point, is that person back there a smoke jumper, you mean so and so, yeah, she is. so very interesting. four to six weeks. it wasn't easy. how was your rookie training

back in '76, sir? >> enduring. >> there you go. they're looking for those folks, when you complete the program you're done. you get on the jump list, that tells us who is going for that day if we get a fire and how many people are on this plane or two planes. once you pass the program, you can go anywhere in the united states, so it's the major leagues we call it, the nfl, there's no more captain, lieutenant telling you to tie your shoe laces, did you take your medicine today. now you are fully self-contained. now you are on the jump list and you can go anywhere in the united states, which is pretty interesting at times. california, oregon, washington,

alaska, montana, idaho, yellow stone and i'm missing one. out of the nine basis we can do jump anywhere in the united states. you guys have heard storm chasers. basically that's kind of what we are. we might preposition a jump plane and ten jumpers or 30 jumpers to stick there for x amount of time to help with the fires. very dynamic, how do you say, a very unique -- we have a lot of that. so we can endure training and some of the training, go through

this, you change your mind and do something else. they're teaching to be very flexible because even in the fire service you might be going one way -- you see them turn and go somewhere else. he got reverted to somewhere else. you fall asleep and now you are in another state. this ain't washington. [laughter] >> this isn't washington. >> who make it is deployment decisions? >> this is a question i don't like. [laughter] >> the program was designed to get the highest-training firefighters and fix it. put the fire out. we do search and rescue if we get called from the sheriff's

department. i've been inserted to go find hikers and meet them and greet them and take them out and that's hard. jump off in the middle of no where. i have a gps barely working because the trees are so tall. we do special -- we have the food, water, training to be by ourselves and to do things that most folks don't want to do. again, that's in the training. so the dispatch -- it depends on what state you're in. it could come from a look-up tower, flask -- alaska flight, it'll go to alaska. dispatch, if that fire is not reported, it'll go through the no-go checklist.

it'll get routed to us and once we get the call we will be off the base in ten minutes. it's quick, very quick. it just depends again where that call is coming from. there's a test at the end. [laughter] >> i can walk. >> you have the main training, what happens each year, do you have to requalify? >> we are going to do physical, we have to do run, 10-mile under 90 minutes which we we have to do in rookie training. i do have an injury and got back in 2013 and i'm not what we call jump duty.

i'm with fire duty but i can't jump out of the plane until the doctor says, yeah, you're not going to be shorter or mes up -- mess up your back anymore. there's no special treatment. if you can't pass, you can't pass. no special treatment for anyone. [laughter] >> sure. >> the protocol, go or no go for a particular fire? >> there are some states that we call policy or no-go checklist. that's all preplanned with

states so, again, it depends on where that is at. we want mother nature to take its course. you want her to clean up all of the stuff that's groan for years and years. if near a home, no we are going to let it burn. why are you letting the fire happened? the mission i did two weeks ago -- one of them was public information officer. that is a hard job. you can imagine. you can imagine people coming and yelling at you, they don't have the right picture. it's funny because you see a fire behind you and you don't see anything happening. sir, we have 20 people here, lookouts here. 600 and so many people.

it's so much the dynamic that's happening. it's a hard one. i think it's certain in my opinion if it's placed up there where it cannot get life, let mother nature take its course, that is my personal opinion for that. the fire is good. it gets so much dead growth and gets very mad. i call her her and she gets very pissed and that's the fad -- bad fire. it makes a lot of energy and that can ruin stuff. we're talking stuff that's growthing for a -- growing for a long time. over 200-degrees. that's the bad fire. we don't want them to get that big. any questions so far, folks? >> i'm curious about how you

work with the incident commands because when a fire start often in this state it can be the sheriff that is -- >> correct. >> overseeing it and how do you get in there quickly when a fire has great potential but the incident command has not done at the federal level? how do you answer the liaison with those types of situation? >> a good example is you've all seen hurricane, national disasters, 9/11, that was in the command system. we're very good at natural disasters, not just fires, so today we train folks from new york city, the last mission i had, we had two guys from hawaii. not just the united states,

we're talking around the world. israel had a big issue with fires, some people were killed, around christmas time. that country hit the panic button, went to the united states, we had jumpers, get on a commercial flight to fly to israel. we never got that far. some did get to israel and did help out. that's how fast we can mobilize which blows your mind. smoke jumpers, we are not in the large command system yet. when we get there we have command, ict5, 4's all different things. every jumper is going to have

plus or minus of those training qualifications. totoday in the smoke jumper world, we have itt5's, small lighting fire and train through the years that can handle pretty good incident. we are talking now helicopters, ict3 commander. you start seeing on the news and goes to command system where type 2 comes in and types. it gets confusing. we do follow a structure protocol that does work. yeah. >> what are some of the prin principles that you use for every fire? you take care of your buddies

back or whatever. >> good question. i always watch out for big foot. [laughter] >> from the time we take off, every jumper on the plane is hanging onto reserve. you have to imagine that. have you ever stepped out your vehicle in a running highway? ..

we are doing a lot of things to watch each other's back. there's so many things that were doing up there. your clothes. in rookie training, we have acronyms for rookie brother, rookie sister and all this stuff. when you're a rookie with your class, at your class number. i asked the gentleman in the back, 72. that means he completed his training in 72. mine is 99. write something happened i'll steer to these two gentlemen in the back because i came, they are like a family member. very close on that aspect of the

jumper. i mean jumpers around the world whether they be military, airborne, from other countries. it's a handshake and hug, what not. hope that answers your question, besides big the. there's a question in the back. >> can you talk briefly about what you carried in your bags? india special equipment for certain situations? >> when i was standing up at the beginning of us take it all the stuff out of this small bag. you can see all that gear that i stuck in a small bag sitting on this table. we have some very, i know double that more gear than some jumpers because i'm a tech guy. in my pack i have my thermal imaging stuff so i can literally look for heat signatures from fire. down to come if there was a person standing there, a few seconds ago. animals, heat, what if i need to

do. if it's a search and rescue mission i can scan hillsides for any heat signature if we're looking for somebody. there were some civilians overdue in a kayak and a cut about 30-mile an hour winds. trying to find two people. that's a big task. i was able to skip and i told them there's nothing at all there. the whole area from here to here is clear so those people are somewhere else. i can a lot of different gear because i like to work easier, not harder out there. you guys can check out a lot of the gear you. as this is very specialized today from our textile to our radios, our gps systems. some of the med gear that we are carrying, this is called a laser flare. this is a cool device. this is not the stuff you're seeing on the news, pointing at aircraft in august of the this is actually designed to point at

aircraft. and i can signal a pause or aircraft coming to me at three to five miles during high noon, delight. and that night i can go 30 miles, which is great. if i have a jumper and was busted up, or it's me and i can have a guy about 10 miles out he's calling, i don't know where you're at. i say, hold on. so that's what my company does. we test a minimum of one year, and this guy actually for almost four years of testing before it got my stamp of approval and we've got guys now in california and other bases using this because it works. i have big this thing at high noon at an airport at a mile. that's important to me because if i need to talk to someone and they are trying to get the location of them and they can't find discount it just makes it harder. it makes the but a little bit harder. 's work easier. this is just some of the gear we have. we call smart textiles where, in

fact, am it actually gets hard. so protects my phone, nice and pliable know but if you take a hammer to come to protect whatever is inside the. so there's some cool technology that is coming out it's been out for a while. this is all technology. this is about three years old. we have small little saws. we have a solar system so we jump now with common human, cell towers are available and it's sure nice to go under the chief of the discussion and give them what's going on so i can power cell phones, headlamps, go pro cameras if we are filming. and what's good about this is i've been on missions where six days and i did need to be resupplied for batteries. taxpayers are paying, helicopter, depends on the size, could be a thousand, it just depends on the helicopter. it's not cheap to buy batteries

out to me. i don't like that. it's nonsense. what i do is i would switch or something. on that fire, the incident commander talks about what he's asking fire so-and-so, why isn't he, he's in gear. a jumper. you don't want to know. he's fine. so for six, seven days i don't need any batteries. i was charging everything by myself. fully self-contained jumpers as we should be. so critical. and there's some companies that will be testing, do they make it or? i guess not. there they are. so you can see some of our folks back there we are working with. icy tier one and two. i spend countless hours of finding better stuff. as far as i know right now in the united states in the fire service only one of those people exist, and that's me. and hopefully someone will come out and spot under one from my

boobut because we need more of those folks. >> how close to the forest yet to actually get in there should? >> if you make a mistake you be a little bit hot. [laughter] which has happened. spirit what's the danger zone for the pair should? >> that's in that four to six weeks. if you take 15 qualifying jumps now to become smokejumpers. if you're messing up in those 15 jumps, so we can land, let's say this room was our jump spot. depending on the sides of the fire i can lead pretty dang close to the fire stage. if it's an established fire, we're talking thunderheads, thunder cells, we're not anywhere near that thing because we have up wins, we have the most. it's not fun being in an airflow. your arms get tired and now you're at the mercy of mother nature. we like to call flying to china, which is not fun.

would you go higher than the jump plane, not a choke point is languid because you're in his airspace, that's the day that kind of sox. [laughter] high jump with the radio on. i remember, i can exactly verbatim but i remember a spot on the plane said, we are backing out for a bit. hold what you got. you're just come at the point you're locating where you're supposed to land, looking we don't want to land but now you are up 1500 feet agl, maybe 2000 now you're a paraglider. we had guys go almost 10 minutes. account number is record time, eight or as long as nine. his arms got tired and the jump plane said mankin something strong, his arms again. he had to fly out, no, my arms are tired. at the back of the base we're debriefing. we can land pretty close to they

are steerable parachute. think of it as a helicopter type parachute. that's a we're jumping the other parachute is a ram air, a plain type parachute the if you can imagine, what you guys see on tv and in movies, that would be kind of the design of that we are jumping around the parachute, the helicopter type but we can steer with our goggles. so we can land pretty close. >> how many jumps can you fly into -- how do you keep up with each other? >> you mea may want to land can hardly keep up with each other speak with if you're landing up in amounts in the rough eric and maybe to commence in is down here, how how do you find each other? how do you get out of there? >> flycatcher question. usually there's not a command center there yet. we are the first ones there. so your jump partner, the young

lady sitting next to you there, she should jump partner. you guys are letting critical. let's say she was daydreaming and she went half a mile off course. now you don't see her anymore. per protocol when she lands -- what your last name? >> kaufmakaufman spirit so chooa jumper coffin okay. you know she is alive in one piece. from there's one navigate to you. and issue stuck in a tree, she's going to take care of her. she is a full repelled system that you could pull out a victory of wanted to keep the. think of our cso pat lindsey. you can see on the video they have a high collar and think of it as, it's a soft armor suit. think way back in time if that was shiny metal. windows hazards designed back in 1939 they copied it still to this day. it is a night suit.

it works. that's how we find each other. we are in communication if your radius don't work, you are going to. ago has different calls. he has a different food than so-and-so. a lot of little tricks that we will stay together. we are not getting lost the you're getting lost in rookie trained you're not going to make the program. we've had that. these guys, like the first or second car, where is rookie so-and-so? he passed us about an hour ago. why did you say anything speaks because we're recording please come up to the microphone to ask your questions so c-span can get them. >> sorry, i'm breaking the rules. i should be repeating them. >> do you have a standard crew organization like a hotshot crew? >> what he's asking, our chain of command, so in, city, county

fire, pretty much from east coast to west coast has a captain, lieutenant, you have an engineer, you could have achieved of infestation, lead criminal, as a. in the smoke-filled world i like to call at the round table. we don't have captains anymore. we don't gouda cheese anymore. i think ready i adopted the captains and whatnot. i'm not sure if they were the right elements are the different colored helmet. the reason why we would jump out we are all equal on that mission. the first jumper out of the door is the jumper in charge. he's the incident commander. but that makes it. when you see jumpers, the first person coming out of that point is going to be in charge of the second jumper or all eight or 16, which we call a jumper in charge. he is the commander. doesn't matter if he's a rookie with two years in anaheim 25, i'm going to follow what you say. if you stumble on going to help

you but i'm going to follow. you're here for a reason. he passed the program and you make a good decision. that's a pretty cool thing to jump out and have a rookie command of fire. that's how they operate. and back then you guys did the same protocol. squad boss. we have squad losses, too. the protocol now first jumper out of the point is jumper in charge. he is, if it's a bigger fire now, and we are 16 underground we will break off in squad losses, the lead crews are going to be in charge of those jumpers so you can do your job because now you have a lot underplay. we do have somewhat of a command in there. so yeah, i come from a county city and i was like who is the captain, who's the chief? they are like, no, not here. >> many years ago i lived in

arkansas and as part of the volunteer fire department and we were called up into the mountains, if you will. we had an old truck up there, and all of a sudden the wind picked up in these countries started exploding faster than our truck wouldn't out of there. how do you protect yourself from being overcome by that type of thing? >> well, it depends. if we're stuck there, we're going, we of last resort, things to do, from backfires and fire shelters. the main goal is to not get where that is that explosive, but it does happen. i got caught last year. dr. aldrin fire was last year the largest fire in washington state history. there were some volunteers up top, and we had a load of smokejumpers. highly experienced over one of years of experience in of the

goal. and i jumped up because those volunteers were, they had bit off more than, these guys, they're going to for problem. so i jumped out and the fire was patented with the chuck canterbury. now i'm by myself with no career. i just had my radio. that's not a good feeling. so we made it happen. the training and remember the jumper called and said are you okay? yeah. i'll call you back in a few minutes. and i went on for about 20 minutes. if i kept doing 360s on this. there was a point there was not we would lose a ninja. does one point i thought it was was going to get burned. we fight fire. with her to protect homes. there's a certain point there's a fine line of that gamble. we all made it out and put lost some homes that day, and we saved some homes. >> hi.

so when she jumper and you're out of the ground, how speedy sorry. we don't want to break the rules. sticks when she jumper and you were on the ground, how long are you on the ground and what do you do about food, water, sleep? what does that tour look like? >> okay. excuse they can't get it over cold just a few weeks ago. what happens is, think of the plane as a shopping cart. you have paid smokejumpers on our plane and do nothing brave enough food supply for every jumper for about 48 hours. so after that you're going to have to get something else, at that point is fully loaded for about 48 hours. so the normal fires in the lower 48, plus or minus, if it's a normal year, could be about a day in half, today's to that are completely out, depending on the size of the fire. so that's about the time you're going to run out of food or you get a resupply.

if that part isn't a good you'll be there probably to afford it, especially if you have two folks. an two folks. and acres of a few. you guys can imagine a football field of fire with just two of you. to us we could all the time but that's a lot of work. you might be there for four or five days. if it's an alaskan you may be there for seven or 14 days. alaska is a very tough place. very tough place to do was and a lack of smokejumpers edited a talk in the classroom, those guys are hard beats. i don't like mosquitoes. the mosquitoes they will pick you up and take you away. it just depends on where we are at the we can be there, the plane is loaded for 48 hours plus or minus with the. this your ipad the food boxes. i give the guys but three days worth of food. it comes out, so what happens them in the video, all the gear, 75-85 pounds after the backpack will be infinitely. once i jumped out of the plane will come with called a cargo

run and open with about 100-pound box. it without a parachute on it and you guys all been camping, take all your stuff and goodies, all that is in that box. it's like christmas so that will be our christmas box. it comes down with a parachute and that's our supplies. so think of the plane as a full shopping cart. we don't just do ashbury we can support fire engines. sometimes we get called for the captain, whether it be a volunteer or a captain on a rural agency or county agency and he just feels a little uncomfortable. you can request, he can put the request in. will come down to i will walk up to its a jumper in charge, how can help you? what is your wish i was i'll do whatever he wants. sometimes he says, it's yours. i've had come when i get down and get the guy, he is frothing, he has stuff over his mouth and his tears coming out of his face and he just had to be about paperwork. i said what's this? is mumbling something.

all right. get on the radio. now i'm the incident commander of that fire. we are there to help if we do a lot of different things. if we need to feed you, katie walker, we have that as well. >> does the military have smokejumpers? >> do you want to get to? right here. >> does the military have smokejumpers? >> they don't. they had airborne units and whatnot annie duke ralph terrain jumping. today still to this day we trade some of the folks. i got an e-mail a few weeks ago, there's always some politics, government, and again i'll probably get in trouble if i'm going to invite these guys over. i called my buddy and said, he has all these military acronyms. ices or these guys? those of those guys, those guys are cool. i know some of those guys. hopefully they can come over and we crosstrained within.

he read the book and he is very interested we do train some of those guys and they crosstrained. we've had to rescue out our base. it's fun. those guys are interesting folks. we are the ones. any other questions, folks? how are we doing for time? >> let me follow the protocol. >> well done. >> you see on tv the guys fighting the big fire, cutting firebreaks with bulldozers and setting backfires with the tortures and all this kind of stuff. in the backcountry you guys are not using that equipment, i don't think. how do you put out a fire that is an acre in size? >> another quick question. suggestions on where we are at. if we are download overdue bulldozers and fire engines, that's a great day because we have help. we need help as well. when we are out there by ourselves we're taking the food away from the fire.

that is our main objective. so that's cutting fire lines down to mineral soil. most of the folks at our base, redmond has welcome our tool of choice, murphy's law is on time so not going to take this off and got myself in front of everyone. this is your tax here and this is your grubby. is what we used to cut debt to mineral soil and we had to cut trees we can get small saplings. even decent size. we're not cutting large trees but we couldn't. this become sure to a trade. when you're in a fire special and rookie training, you will learn how to use left an hand, right hand. this become sure to all. it is by my bed when i sleep at night. going downhill come sometimes we slide down and we use this to do

a rap to saucepan. if you fall, it's a walking stick, sasquatch protection. [laughter] guys are very good at doing this. it's amazing. this is our tool. designed around 1911 from the 19 then fires. >> my question is, what inspired you to write your book and how long did it take? >> quick story. a long story short. i'm very lucky to meet a bunch and amazing people are i have a business, amazing people. i'm just in awe. goosebumps. i get a call one day and i go home and asked my assistant. dino harper something publishing? i don't read much.

she looks at me, who called you? harper somebody. >> harpercollins? that's it. videophone. she says, i said what come is about the you know what this is? now. one of the biggest publishing companies, if they don't cold call people. i remember i was on duty at the time. i remember i asked one of my very good friends presented by succumbing to fester. just an amazing man, or the show business. i call them. you guys remember rodney dangerfield? that kind of demeanor. i can see them in the head on the phone, jason, someone is messing with you. [laughter] someone is messing with you. i like you, but no one, they don't cold call you. give me the information. i've got to go, bye. he hangs a.

later on that day, either phone call on some said colvin back immediately. a long story short, i called them and we talked a little bit. i kind of who he was at the time. i was honored to, you know. at first i said do. i don't want to do about encountered into something of, i was scared. i don't write. scared, you know, i'm nervous. all these things each of once. you purchase out there. output, hunter college, i had to talk about myself. so that went on for a few months and i finally said, i feel comfortable with peter. harpercollins is such a great, i can't say anything, for my publicist katie to peter, such an amazing and amazing support inviting me to my book. that is my book. my co-author helped with that. tremendous love-hate

relationship at times. again pulling her out. can you imagine getting twentysomething years -- might d day definition to is that the definition are two different things. so you can imagine the hard work everyone to make it happen. [inaudible] >> and that was part of, remember him calling me want to ever talk about the insert and that. i said what do you think lex johnny cash, black, i like the artwork. i want elegant. i want surprise me. and he did. just amazing i tell people if you don't like the work, it's reflective, you can know that the. it makes a great target. [laughter] if you don't like my book you can take it out and shoot it and send it back and i will refund you. know, i will refund you. they did a great job and it's been such a pleasure.

>> how long did it take? >> so just under two years. august was two years, and you can imagine, psycho duty, eight hours, 16 hours a day with my smokejumper job and then a couple and i start my prg job, between that they got pushed aside and in writing. there was a lot of, there is instead about 3 a.m., i want to be in bed by 3 a.m. almost every day. i'm not lying to you. that was, i will look at my clock, it's 2:00, take a shower, i'm a little hungry, i've got to get about six or seven and get to work. so there were days literally, part of the smokejumper training, you can sleep standing up, take a break, take account that but there were days i was really starting to get overworked. there was days i was falling asleep, i drive an expedition vehicle, and overland vehicle.

you can look at my website. a fully self-contained vehicle that can pretty much have a lot of things, solar power, all this cool stuff. i would drive, take me to the base, stopped three times and take a nap. totally exhausted. so yes, hard work between my co-author and me and everyone involved. still, this is just the next chapter but i'm not up at three in the morning. >> what about the movies because i've been in contact with some folks in hollywood, just amazing folks. they contacted me just after the book deal and just a pleasure to meet some o of these folks are anachronistic some of these actors. i've been very lucky to meet and they're just people. it's funny because i remember a guy about two months ago, he's elbowing me look at my van committee says jason, do you

know that is? he wants one of your books. he tells me, i'll, nice to meet you. i don't watch that many movies and so yeah, pretty interesting to meet these folks and be very humble and to take you can under their wing. i think that, i don't know. it blows your mind when you text somewhat and he's like a standing right next to you? yeah. i'm just not, you know, i'm just normal i guess. in a weird way. >> speaking of sleep, how do you sleep? monitor fighting that fire? >> i have a tree hammock. i hate sleeping on the ground. when i was alerted fire and 89 we were not allowed, we didn't have, what was his rules? no tense. you issued a sleeping bag. nomad, which is fine.

i like hard-core stuff, and he would give you a, an old military cut. you can build and you can sleep on it but they were broken. he would always say it builds character and it did. i love them to death and he would always say you know, mcdonald's is hiring. we can take you down there. i will call your dad. ..

>> i sleep in a tree hammock. [laughter] >> we have a work-rest ratio. we have to get 15 hours. we are going to make up that time. it's some of the rules that they never had back in and make your stomach turn. i have to do what? sure. >> is a tree hammock the right place to be sleeping in the middle of a forest fire? [laughter] >> good question, but we're not at that point and the fire is not near me. >> what about oxygen?

>> we don't wear any breathing apparatus. we don't wear those. we are in wild and fire arena, we move away from that smoke. the tank system only last about 15. hello, phone, he's at about ten minutes. the good guys get almost 30 minutes. what do you guys get on -- 20 something? >> yeah. >> in the training trailers, you can hear the guy breathing. you have guys that actually will slow down the breathing, be calm so they can get the longest tank

ride and get the mission established and that's pretty amazing. it's hard thing to to doment you're in all that gear and sometimes it doesn't work. so we don't have it -- there's devices out there that kind of help, the big chunks, but you can imagine the heat exhaustion. i tested them around 10-15 minutes. i don't jump with it anymore because the weight and the bulk, it doesn't work for us. we are going to get out of that bad smoke. we don't always have that choice . [laughter] >> can you comment on the fires

in washington and california, where they are this year relative to other years and where it's going to be in the next 10-20 years, it's guesting worst? >> hard question. you know, there's a lot of politics in that. we know there's stuff happening in the climate. there's something happening. a lot of people say there's nothing is happening. stuff is happening. we are seeing things whether it be alone or not, mother nature doesn't tell us. there's a lot of scientists out there. some of the oldest ladies on the planet and they are getting stressed. that means something. something is happening. i don't have an answer for that. we are seeing -- the problems i'm seeing in some of the

states, lack of response in using the right tool for the mission. a lot of the politics and people are going to get heard. people are eminent. there's going to be fallen folks. either we do something about it or we don't do something about it. the fact is the fire is going to get bigger. we've seen that happene in some of the states. how can you say that? i was there. i've seen the fire when it was manageable. now it's not. so we actually hiked out to one of those fires which is called -- we can talk about it but probably get, we went out there and put it out. direct action and no one knew we were there. we put the darn thing out.

we hiked out there. put it out and got back to base about midnight and they said that fire came over the radio that was incestable. to a jumper back there, do you know what that definition is incestable to a smoke jumper? when i was at the base, ramos, ramos come to the office. the fire is unaccessible, what do you think, is this a joke? there were things going on. i heard it on the radio, you take a second, you do this and, no, you want to go, hell, yeah. we went out there and grabbed our gear, loaded up. i got footages on my phone and i remember getting on station and there was another crew from another state and they turned out the fire. that's fine.

that's fine. they felt they were unsafe. they turn it down. that's fine. i was a little upset. all right. he looked at it. did you go out there and put it out, yup. we are gearing up and walked away and he stood at us as we left, the worst walking -- i've had some bad walks, the partner i was with, he got hit in the ribs by something as he fell and he thought, you know, this is kind of -- what is going on? yeah, so this is like 11, 12:00 o'clock at night.

the fire was done, so we know for a fact that we're -- some of the folks are not using the full potential, and that's all the fire. there's some upper management stuff that needs to be fixed. it's not rocket science at all. it's a high-response day, low-level hum -- humidity. if they get a call in 9-1-1, we will go check it out, we will set up a plane, saw the district office and see what they want to do about it, send the world as we call it. california -- those guys are good at that. they have low, medium and high response. guess what is going to be in your front door, team of fire

engines, probably two helicopters, leap plane and a chief. >> save the ribs. >> exactly. you guys have some ribs. [laughter] >> the guy was -- barbecue ribs all over sauce. he had no idea. he thought we just showed up. he has no idea. we helped him put it out. he had no idea they called dispatch. barbecue fire, return all responding units, planes. [laughter] >> yes, that's -- some states are so on it, mother nature have

response, she's already pissed, you can't do anything. for a fact you know if you wait for a fire to get big, you know so that protocol, i would have changes immediately. there would be a command center captain. you guys have a command center in the dispatch? >> we're a small -- >> okay. so a gentlemen that paces back and forth and listening and stuff, he can go yeah, yeah, yeah, get them the world. a good example is if i'm in riverside county, i'm going back from a call, i know that area, i can get on the radio, see response back, go ahead, send me the nearest five fire engines, strike engine, whatever you

have. and they -- the command captain is going, all the tone is going out. there's no let's kind of see what is going on, come on. so there is a lot of -- it cost a lot more money after the fact, now you have a budget to fight a million acre, half a million acre fire. let's do it now. that's very frustrating in being a smoke jumper, having some of the largest fires where there's jumpers at the base, and people are you guys doing anything? we are going to go out. take your radios and i'll call you back if we need you. we went out and saved some homes. we did, we saved some homes and that was a good feeling. >> let's have five more minutes for questions. in the meantime fill out your

forms and pass them in the center aisle and we'll collect them from the drawing. thank you. >> quick question. from your perspective, how can we do a better job of really doing things ahead of time, litigation and other things, what would wow like to see to make things a little easier on the other side? >> for space for your home? >> not only for our home, but also forest, fire climate, and how do we -- what would you suggest, if you were head of the forest service, what would you suggest in terms of really doing a better job of preparing for these fires? >> one of the things that we know for a fact, small fires are going to get big, we have trash and death growth. some of those whether folks that come back and harvest the

resource, that's a way of cleaning up. we've seen it happening in washington with people pleased. you see folks come in and cutting down the trees. no, we have to clean up the yard, that's the yard. those low-level water shed homes, that's the first place that needs to be cleaned up, but it's hard. we tell folks that they do have large properties, go out and clean your homes and what not, and if you live in that urban interface or in the forest, you guys are going to come and realize that your house might burn. i tell people, have a new drawn of your home in you drawer. there's things that we cannot do to stop her when she's very mad. to do it on a large scale, the united states is huge. all the forest and natural resources we have, how do we do that if you have a fire that

started 20 miles away. it's getting so much energy, now in the two days it's at your back door. that's the part. how do you get folks to timber that, lumber that. i don't have an answer for that. i do have an answer for that if the fire start get the right tools there because we know that works. that's a fact. all of the basis 99.9%. how many fires as a smoke jumper? zero. 99.99 effective. when we jump a fire, the things are out. we know we work. you guys -- you don't make the decision for us. you guys get home and google smoke jumper user guide and i

always challenge any fire chief in the fire service, anyone that's in the command position or what not that he needs to read that and understand what we do. so if you guys are all chiefs in the forest of the united states, you're from idaho, all different parts of the united states and you get a fire, u ain't calling jumpers, it's too dangerous, i ain't calling those guys, you don't make that decision, we make that decision. when we get we are trained to land in trees, we are trained in land in water, in rocks in slope and trained to do all those things. you just call us. we are going to give you a handshake, we are going to find an airport, road, we will get out of the plane. so that's all you need to do is request us and we always joke, all we want a handshake and a ride back home.

we'll take government credit card or rent a car. it's a joke but literally, folks in the forest service, it's too dangerous, we can't have you -- that place is bad news up there. i have been witnessed. are you kidding me? are they joking? percentage rate is too high. very small per -- percentage. there's only been six fatalities with 1939. i can't count how many jumps we totally have. it just shows the amount of safety, we are professional firefighters. forestry technician. [laughter] >> the government for you. >> two more.

>> have any of the jumpers been deployed to fight any colorado fighters? >> yes. so national resource, we can go anywhere in the pacific northwest. most where there's trees, interior and department of agricultural, you have deserts and sage. >> what fires did you help fire in colorado? >> i couldn't tell you, i wasn't personally there. jumpers are going to come and overhead position, so half of these guys come by vehicle and they're going to fill in division, task force, operations, lodgistic and these teams are running around 50, 60, i have to find out, some of these teems have -- teams have

more people. feeding all the troops, if you get hurt, sleeping, everything. so you could be in overhead, there was smoke jumpers there as overhead. every day you have a briefing that has a list that shows every base and where ever jumper is at on the missions, acronyms. so they are out there. only 400 something of us, so you can't take them all and put them on big fire. sometimes they'll have 5,000 folks or more. one more question? nope. ready for the test? [laughter] >> it's 100 questions and multiple choice. [applause]

>> this is book tv on c-span2, television for serious readers. coming up tonight at 7:00 eastern, discusses perspective on race in america. 7:45 takes a look at the future of china and impact on the world. 8:30 eastern, allen west talks about his book. at 9:00 p.m., the reagan presidency after the assassination attempt. coming up at 10:00 eastern new book, controversial statement. at 11:00 with firsthand accounts with holocaust