time. [applause] >> three willing tuesday? [inaudible conversations]

>> it is my pleasure to introduce jason ramos as buyers are growing larger scarier and more deadly every year is the conditions of the developments that is designed to create a powder keg. this topic is poignant for us as we are expressing devastating wildfires. he spent almost 30 years of his life to the five pahang service beginning at 17 with a volunteer and then in

southern california. and then with the north cascade and replace those smoke jumping. take a look a king carry more than its body weight. going up steep terrain for miles as a mechanical engineer i resonate with that. usa today's describes what he does of brains and brawn. to prepare cells manet day individual brought to you courtesy of though harper collins publishers.

[applause] >> murphy's law. below what judge quick video not the full length you can watch it on a youtube it was done by a friend of mine air force special forces of the voice narrating the video. for four years ago at the base most of the time we are approached by a big production companies was a

time we are reserved and quiet and in a quarter. how was that? murphy law is always on time [laughter]

>>. [laughter] it makes you wonder. it cannot get back out of that. just go back. >> if it doesn't work pull up your phone you can watch it by yourself. [laughter]

♪ ♪ to deflect those the deform that protects from the heat. mother nature herself with the unpredictable force.

to provide the blessings of security and a host of other benefits to mankind fire at the all consuming dragon that takes lives. ♪ if you going to jump from a perfectly good airplane is

one to see the flat ground it is another into mountainous terrain in the raging forest fire but that is what they do. >> al was flown in the helicopter in 1982 when i got there the group of guys jumped in with the parachutes i thought that was unique. >> is not a gender or body type with the motivation and the work ethic simic years after fire-fighting under their belts in 1994 it gave me the idea to be the smokejumper. >> it is like professional sports with the best athletes.

smokejumpers have the ultimate wildland firefighting experience there well versed and highly motivated and trained. >> i was the first and that started maya dirty and i pushed and pushed. >> smoke jumping was readily accessible. >> he wanted to be a smoke jumper before he was a teenager. >> i had to brothers that jumped before i did. >> use started at 19 years old. >> watching my brothers and cousins going through training i was well versed on what i needed to do. >> requires know-how and physical stamina to be a smoke jumper. >> no experience necessary

you have to have some type of wildland firefighting experience that equate at tusis and switches to three years. >> actually contemplating trading as a wild land fire fighter. >> that depends of the batch of people but not everybody that tries will make it. >> it can change how they look. >> in essentially it is the way to find out how badly wanted.

>> with that pushup guy with that provision of 30 or 40 years old. and then to be in good shape before they put the stamp of approval in the of wilderness some way. we have all these things you left the aircraft with. >> 210 pounds and 3 miles lead there really lucky.

>> then nobody wants to be there. >> some folks on the for there fifth jump just decided it was not for that secretary is a mental and physical aspect and either/or both you will be washed from the program spirit that is why it is between four and six weeks once we exit the aircraft it doesn't matter if you have a sore throat or your pet fish passed away you have to get the mission done. >> and since 1939 and all those jumpers 74. with that combination to

become a conflagration before they could be reached then in 1940 came the smokejumpers. >> in almost today get off the ground. >> so we will stop that they're prepared deal like that so far? [applause] you can imagine the work we had to get through to get the approval that was days of me polynya my hair. [laughter] we do work for the forest service there is a rule of how to blow your nose and how to eat your pen.

but we work for the people of the united states. there wasn't a very good documentary about their. and rick stewart called me he gave me his background with the air force. and we made it happen you can go home to watch the rest of that. is an amazing gentleman that broad as this. any questions so far? there is so much of the program 1939 through now there is a lot of questions but so much information in one hour. are there any smokejumpers in the audience are retired?

[applause] >>. >> very good bases in the united states with a triple digit temperatures was it easy for you? [laughter] i had a friend of mine who said if you get anything right now? if you could do training again? your brain goes back to that. it all just depends how much

you want to deal with. weather is corridor basketball is so ingrained with that for a tourist six weeks i contest to every single day being a rookie i remember every day there was a traitor who would say give a round of applause you made it today you did -- she might not make it tomorrow. have a good night. [laughter] we will keep it pg-13. [laughter] but they may not be here the next day. you cannot guarantee that position it is a privilege not an honor you're not

guaranteed to become the united states smokejumper. then you take it minute by minute or day by day. and then we will see what happens tomorrow. any questions before we move on that? there is a very dynamic member. since 1939 we are still under 6,000 because / share we were 5,800. i have a microphone. now i can move.

[laughter] stood to gentleman back there i can pull up my a database to see what your and what base and it tells me everything if they are legitimate. [laughter] not many are so we have the database to show the grand kids it is a proud day and. the nine bases were around day fluctuating number near 500. at our base ahead to pararescue, x rangers so they come and go throughout the season some, for their

summer vacation. [laughter] they come back to duty. i schoolteacher's love to come back. a new one is 64 he ran a mile and a half in just under nine minutes 30 seconds. they are very motivated and don't except anything else. and then to go out and do the polyps and not even sweat. is specially how old he is. [laughter]

>> they do have to pass the same physical fitness no handicapping that four or six weeks for gender or color or race. if you have the antenna's coming out and you are purple you have the same test. the males and females we get to worse and people say are they a smoke jumper? yes. how was your rookie training ? >> a little physical endurance once you complete

the program and uridine of how many people can go anywhere in the united states that is the major leagues there is no and liu mr. paige and your shoelaces or did you take your lunch? so if you complete your program this satire -- the siren goes off to go anywhere in the united states that is interesting. california alaska montana and idaho and there are nine

bases we can make a base anywhere in the united states you know, the storm chasers that is why'' we are if there is lightning we may pre-position ted jump plane nor attend jumpers to sit there to help with the fires that they may cause. it is very dynamic very unique. during training then you go back to be something else. even the fire service you may go one way when the

lights turn off the lights back on then you are diverted to another call. and then turn around and fly somewhere else maybe it is a 10 minute flight that you were in another state. >> could makes those deployment decisions? >> a question i don't like. [laughter] the program is designed to get them to the incident to put the fire out for the helicopter to find hikers and meet them to take the matter of the area because of the fire coming. that is hard to be dropped

off the middle of nowhere with spoke with the gps is a working because the trees are so tall to find the trail and find three people in a very big area. and then to do the things that most don't want to do. so dispatch japan's. huckabee alaska flight so if that is not reported or that checklist balloted. in is very quick patent fans

of where the call is coming from. >> what happens each year do you have to requalify after trading? >> we have to do a physical physical, a run lead to an after requalify recall if it but would why have an injury in 2013 i am not allowed jump to the break-in defier duty.

so there is a protocol there is no special treatment if you can pass you cannot pass. no special treatment. >> the protocol for firefighters now is led a bird is a what is the decision making process to tell you go or no go for a fire? >> some states have of let it burn policy or the no go checklist that is all preplanned with the state's and the district's. so it depends on where that is that. we want mother nature to

take its course to clean up that stuff that has been growing for years and years if it is property then know we will not let it burn. the mission and i just did to weeks ago after 14 days one was a public information officer and that is a hard job you can imagine. people coming up to yell at you. they don't have the right picture because you see the fire then you have to explain the hotshot crew we have lookouts and the helicopter a jumper here and all these people that is great so it is very dynamic what is happening but it is

hard and it is just my opinion they cannot get to life and property to let nature take its course. there is so much debt growth than that is bad. has anybody read the book yet? i called her and she gets very pest. [laughter] then you get a lot of crash that makes a lot of energy instead doesn't grow for a long time because it is so hot it is over 2,000 degrees rita wanted to get to that. >> i am curious when a fire starts in this state the

sheriff could oversee its then how do you get in there quickly if it has great potential but not at the federal level? >> talk about the command system hurricanes and floods and natural disasters that is the command system. we're very good and natural disasters not just fires fertilize the forest service here? we train from new york city and alaska and hawaii. part of the incident command system. to around the world not just united states remember a few years back people were killed around christmas?

that country hit the panic button and within a few years -- within a few hours we had bad commercial flights to israel. some ambassadors did get there to help out that is how fast we can mobilize. that blows your mind. . .

>> that's stuff you're probable >> that faces a structure of what the gentleman just asked about. we do follow a very structured protocol that does work throughout the world. we train folks throughout the world. >> what are some of the principles or protocols that you use for every fire like you always take care of your buddies back, whatever? >> so good question. for me is watch over big cliffs. [laughter] >> serious question. it's so quick in that plane.

we are all on one page from the time we take off, every jumper in that play is holding onto reserve because there's a red handle on that reserve. that's a loaded gun. if i pop that reserve in the plane i could take down 12, 11 souls. probably can't fly with the parachutes out. have you ever stuck your hand in the highway, don't do it in 100 miles per hour. there's a huge lift, laundry list of things that we are doing from the sirens go off until the mission is over and it depends where you are on the plane. my hands are locked together and she's on my reserve. if i fall asleep my hands are on the reserve. that's very important. if i come over and loose something and that thing pops,

that's a very serious things. yeah, we are doing a lot of things to watch each other's backseat. there's so many things that we are doing out there and you're close. rooky brother and rooky sister. that's your class number. i asked the gentleman in the back, 72, that means he completed rooky training in 1972. mine is '99. so right now if something happened i'm probably going to steer twot two gentlemen in the back because -- they're like family members. i'm very close on that aspect of the jumper. i meet jumpers around the world and it's a handshake and hug, and what not. i hope that answered your question beside big foot.

>> you have special equipment for certain situations? >> when i will stand up in the beginning and taking all the stuff out of a small bag, you can see all the gear that i stuffed in the small bag sitting in the table. we had some very -- i'm going to have a little bit more gear than some jumpers because i'm a tech guy, so in my pack i have thermal imaging stuff. if there was a person standing here a few seconds ago, animals, heat, whatever i need to do, i can scan hillside if we are looking for someone. we did use it in the last mission. it got about 30-miles-per-hour

winds. there's nothing out there. that whole area from here to here is clear. so those people are somewhere else. so i carry a lot of different gear because i like to work easier, not harder out there. so you guys with check out a lot of the gear here. it is very specialized today to tech styles, some of the gear that we are carrying, this is called the laser flair. this is a cool device here. this is not the stuff that you are seeing on the news pointing at aircraft. this is designed to point at an aircraft and i can signal a pilot or aircraft coming to me at 3-5 miles during high noon, daylight. at night i can go 30 miles, which is great because if i have a jumper that's busted up or to

me and i can hear the guy about 10 miles per hour and he's calling, i say, hold on. [laughter] >> that's what my company does. we test minimum of one year and this guy actually went through almost four years of testing before we got stamps of approval i have video of this thing at high noon at an airport about a mile. that's important to me because if i need to talk to someone and they try to get a location of us and they can't find us, it just makes it harder. it makes the day a little harder for us. work easier. this is some of the gear we have , impact, it actually gets hard. it protects my phone, some of my tech. if you take a hammer to it, it protects whatever is inside it. cool technology that's coming

out. it's been out for a while. this is like old technology. this is about three year's old. we have small little saws, we have a solar system, so we jump now with, you know, cell towers are available and it's sure nice to call another chief or dispatch center and give them what's going on, so i can power cell phone, head lamps, go pro cameras if they are filming. six days and i didn't need to recharge for batteries. taxpayers are paying for helicopters, a thousand -- it just depends on the helicopters. it's not cheap to fly batteries out to me, you know, and i don't like this. it's nonsense. the commander he's asking, why

isn't he using any gear, he's a jumper. you don't want to know, he's fine. so first six and something days i didn't know any battery. i was charging everything by myself. so pretty cool. there's some companies will be testing, did they make it here? i guess not. there they are. you can see some of the folks back there. i see tier 1 gear. i spend countless hours to find better stuff. only one of those people exists and that's me, hopefully someone will come out and spot another one for my book because we need some more of those folks. >> i have a question, i'm close to -- [inaudible] [laughter] >> well, if you make a mistake you're going to be a little bit hot. [laughter] >> which has happened.

>> that's 4-6 weeks. you have to take 15 qualifying jumps now to become a smoke jumper, if you're messing up in 15 jumps, we can land, let's say this room was our jump spot, depending on the size of the fire i can land pretty close to the fire's edge. if it's an established fire thunder head, we are not anywhere near that thing. we have thermos. you're at the mercy of mother nature. we would like to call flying to china, which is not fun. now, the jump plane is flying away. that's a day that kind of sucks. i remember -- i can't remember

exactly but i remember a spot on the plane -- [laughter] >> hold what you have. you son of a -- [laughter] >> at that point you are looking at where you're supposed to land. but now you're up. 5800 feet up in the air. we had guys almost going ten minutes. i want to say it was eight and his arms actually got tired and the jump planes says oh, man, that was wrong, my arms were down. he got back to the base and we were debriefing, you can imagine. they are steerable. so think about it as a helicopter parachute. the other parachute, which is a

plane-type parachute. if you can imagine, what you guys see on tv and the movies, that would be the design of that, we are jumping the round parachute and we can steer them. we can land them pretty close. [inaudible] >> how do you keep up with each other? >> how do we keep up with each other? >> you land in the mountains in rough area, maybe the command center is down here, how do you find each other, how do you get out of there? >> okay, i got your question. usually there's not a command center there. we are the first ones there. we haven't established it. your jump partners, the person next to you, she will hand pretty close. you both have com.

let's say she was day dreaming and you don't see her anymore. what's your name? okay, and the jump plane and you know that she is alive in one piece. from there she will navigate to you and if she's stuck in a tree, she's going to take care of her system that you can repel out of a tree of 150 feet, batman suit and you can see and think of it as a soft armor suit. think back in time. they copied a night suit. it works. that's how we find each other. we are in communication. if radios don't work, you're going to -- everyone has different calls. you can always tell so and so is coming up because he has a

different hoot than so and so. we will stay together. we are not getting lost. if you're getting lost at rooky training, you're not going to make the program. [laughter] >> we've had that. why didn't you say anything. >> please come up to the microphone to answer your question so c-span can get them. sir, thank you. >> sorry, i'm breaking the rules. i should be repeating it. >> do you have a standard crew organization like a hot-shot crew? >> he's asking our chain of command. the city county firemen has a captain, lieutenant, engineer, a chief, all in a station. that kind of stuff. in a jumper world, i like to

call the round table. we don't have the captains anymore, we don't do the chiefs anymore. we don't -- they don't wear much -- they wear red helmets and the reason why as we jump out we are all equal on the mission. the first jumper out of the door is the jumper in charge. he is the commander. if that makes sense. that first person that's coming out of that plane is going to be in charge of the second jumper or all eight or 16, which we call the jumper in charge, he is the commander. it doesn't matter if he's a rooky with two years in and i'm 35, i'm going to follow what he says. if you stumble, i'm going to follow -- you're here for a reason. you passed the program and you're going to make a good decision. that's a pretty cool thing and have a rooky command a fire in the basis following the command. that's how we operate.

and back then, you did the -- should be the same protocol. squad boss. >> we had scaud bosses too. the first one that jumps out of the plane, he is the commander in charge. if it's a bigger fire and we are 16 on the ground, the lead crews are going to be in charge of those jumpers so you can do your job because now you have a lot on your plate. we do have somewhat of a command in there. so, yeah, and i come from a county, city. who is the captain, who is the chief. no. [laughter] >> not here. >> many years i lived in arkansas and we were called up in the mountains, if you will, we had a whole truck up there and all of a sudden the wind picked up and these pine trees

started exploding faster than our truck could move out of there. how do you protect yourself from being overcome by that type of thing? >> well, it depends, if we are stuck there, we have last resorts, thing to do from backfires and fire shelters, the main goal is to not get to that explosive but it does happen. i got caught last year, this year it's been passed, but there was volunteers on top and we had a load of smoke jumpers, ict4's, and i jumped out because those volunteers were -- they bit off more than -- they're going to have a problem here. i jumped out and the fire was that intense where the truck had

to be. all i had was my radio, that's not a good feeling. mother -- you know, we made it happen. the training and i remember the jumper, is she okay, yeah. [laughter] >> i'll call you back in a few minutes. that went on for about 20 minutes. the fire kept doing 360's on us, there was point in there, there was a point one person was going to get burned and that's -- we fight fire, we are there to protect homes and there's a certain point, a fine line of the gamble so we all made it out and we lost some homes that day and we saved some homes, so -- hi. >> hi. >> so how -- >> sorry. >> don't want to break the rules. you're on the ground, how long are you on the ground and what

do you do about food, water, fleet, what does that tour look like? >> okay. excuse me, i'm getting over a cold a few weeks ago. think of the plane as a shopping cart. in that plane we have enough food supplies for every jumper for about 48 hours. so after that you are going to have to get something else but that plane is fully loaded for about 48 hours, so the normal fires in the lower 48 plus or minus, if it's a normal year, a day and a half, two days to have that fire completely out depending on the size of the fire. and that's about the time you're going to run out of food or you're going to resupply, if that fire is about an acre, three to four days, specially if you have two folks, an acre of a football field. you can imagine a football field up fire which is two of you. we do it all the time.

it's a lot of work. you might be there four to five days. you might be the first seven or 14 days. alaska is a very tough place. those are hard dos. i don't like mosquitoes. they will pick you up and take you away. we can be there and the plane is loaded 40 hours plus or minus the food. this year i packed the food boxes and gave them about three day's worth of food. it comes out. so in the video about 7 -- 75 to 85 pounds of gear. the plane is going to come with a cargo, 100-pound box and it's going to have a parachute on it. all you guys have been camping? all that is in the box like christmas. that's going to be our christmas box.

it comes out of the parachute and it's our supplies. think of the plane as a full shopping cart. we could support fire engines, sometimes we call for the captain to be a volunteer or captain on a real agency or county agency and he just feels a little bit uncomfortable, he can request, he can put request, i will come up to you, jumper in charge, mr. ramos, how can i help you and sometimes he said, it's yours. he's got snots and stuff over his mouth and tears coming out of of his face and handed me a pile of paperwork. i said, all right. get on the radio and now i'm the instant commander of that fire. that's what we're there. if we need to feed you or give

you water, we do that as well. >> does the military have jumpers? >> you want to get that? >> yeah. >> right here. >> does the military have smoke jumpers? >> they don't. what they have -- there are airborne units. still to this day we train some of the folks and i just got an e-mail a few weeks, politics, government again, i will probably be in trouble, i'm going invite these guys over. hey, they have all the military acronyms. he was very interested. so we do train some of those guys and they cross-train and we had rescue in our base and they train up. it's fun. those guys are interesting folks, but we are the ones.

any other questions, folks? how are we doing for time? >> well done. >> you see on tv the guys fighting a big fire, cutting fire breaks with bulldozers and in the country you guys are not using that equipment, i don't think, how do you put out a fire that's an acre in size? >> another great question, so it depends where we are at if we are at low and county and that's a great day. we have help, you know, we need help as well. when we are out there by ourselves, we are taking the food away from the fire. that's the main objective. so that's cutting fire lines, down to mineral soil. most of the folks at our base in the redmond as well are the tool

of choice. i'm not going to cut myself in front of everyone. [laughter] >> this is your axe. this is what we do to cut mineral soil f we need to cut trees, a decent size, we are not cutting large trees but we could. this becomes your tool of trade. when you're in the rooky training, you'll know how to use left hand, right hand. >> we use this to slow us down and if you fall a walking stick, protection. [laughter] >> some guys are very good at -- it's amazing. so this is our tool. this is called a polaski.

>> how do you jump a polaski? >> does it go -- >> we grab her. >> what inspired you to write your book and how long did it take? [laughter] >> quick story, long story short , i'm very lucky to meet a bunch an amazing people. i have a business and just amazing people. i'm just at awe. goosebumps. i go home, you know, publishing something, i don't read much. [laughter] >> she looks at me and she says, who called you. harper something. harper called? >> yeah, that's it. give me your phone. i said, what is that bad.

do you know who this is? i said, nope. one of the biggest publishing companies, they don't call people. [laughter] >> i was on duty at the time and so i remember i text one of my very good friends, he's advisory, an amazing successful in business and i called him, you guys remember ronnie danger field. somebody is messing with you. [laughter] >> not that you're a cool guy, i like you. but no one -- they don't call you. give me the information. i had to go, bye. hangs up. call them back immediately. [laughter] >> so long story short i called them and we talked a little bit, i kind of knew who he was at the time. i was honored, you know, and i

said -- at first i said no, i don't want to do a book, i was scared. i'm nervous, all these things hit you at once and you put yourself out there. book, harper called. i have to talk about myself. so that went on for a few months and i finally said, i felt comfortable with harper, i can't say anything from my publicist katie and let me do my book. that is my book. the coauthor helped with that tremendous, love-hate relationship at the time. can you imagine get 20 something years. my bad day definition to his bad day definition are two different

things. you can imagine the hard work everyone to make it happen. >> beautiful. >> that was part -- i remember him calling me one day and they were talking about the insert in that, what do you think, johnny cash black, i want art work, elegant, surprise me. and he did. it's just amazing. if you don't like the book, it's reflective. if you can hold that up. it makes a great target. [laughter] >> if you don't like my book, take it out and shoot it and refund you. [laughter] >> they did a great job. it's been such a pleasure. just under two years. august was two years and you can imagine, i go to duty eight hours a day, 16 hours and i'm

writing. so there was a lot of -- there was a standard about 3:00 o'clock in the morning. iped to be in bed by 3:00 in the morning every day. i'm not lying to you. that was -- i would look at my clock. take a shower. i have to get up at 6:00 or 7:00 and get to work. there were days literally, you can sleep standing up and take a break, take a cat nap, but there was days that i was starting to get overworked. [laughter] >> i drove an expedition vehicle, a fully self-contained vehicle that can handle a lot of things that can be left alone, solar stuff, very cool.

i would stop three times and take a nap. i'm totally exhausted. so, yeah, hard work between my coauthor julian smith and me, this is just the next chapter but i'm not up to till 3:00 in the morning. the movie. we will see. i've been in compact with some folks at hollywood. they contacted me after the book deal and just a pleasure to be -- to meet some of these folks. i'mi'm not going to say some ofe actors i've been very lucky to meet and they're just people and it's funny because i remember a guy about two months ago elbowing me. jason, you know who that is? he wants one of your books. nice to meet you. i don't watch that many movies. pretty interesting to meet these folks and be very humble and

take you kind of under the wing and i think they -- i don't know. it blows your mind when you text someone. like he's standing right next to you. yeah. i'm just normal, i guess, in a weird way. ..

so the sweet part is the ears of my research a company of canada within two minutes, 2.5 minutes i could have directed. it doesn't matter if there's a small cliff, i have embeds and you hear the guys behind you. i don't know what you guys called it back then. i hate rocks in the back of your head in creepy crawlers crawling and scorpions so i sleep in a tree hammock.

[laughter] we have a work ratio so we have to get 16 hours and we are supposed to have ed off. we are going to make up that time in the next period so there are are some of the rules that they never had back then and they make your time stomach turn. like i've got to do what? >> is a tree hammock the right place to be sweeping in the middle of a forest fire? [laughter] good question. we are in a safe area where we are sleeping. you don't wear any breathing

apparatus. the city self-contained breathing apparatus, we don't wear those. we are in the firefighting arena so we weighed -- move away out of asthma but you can imagine we have had the tank system and they only last for 20 minutes. it depends on how hard you breathe. some will collapse in 15 minutes. so in training ahead of bellringing, hello, fire. you were out in about 10 minutes. so the good guys would get over 30 minutes. what do you guys get to bayona tanks? 20-something? those guys literally in the training trailers there are some i can hear the guys breathing. we would have guys i would actually slow down their breathing and be calm so that they could get the longest tank riding get the mission accomplished. that's a hard thing to do because you are and all that gear and sometimes it doesn't work.

there are devices out there that help. you can imagine the heat exhaustion of working and arduous triple digits it and having covered your face now. usually in 10 or 15 minutes they are flying through the air. one did save me one night but i don't jump anymore because just the weighed in the bulk, doesn't work for us. we are going to get most out of that bad smoke but sometimes we are there for hours. you don't always have that choice. >> jason can you comment on the fires in washington and california relative to other years and where will we be in the next 10 to 20 years?

>> and hard question. there are a lot of politics in that. we know there's stuff happening with climate. i'm not getting into the argument of saying there's no greenhouse effect and there's nothing happening. something is happening. we are seeing glaciers and whether it be a lull or whatnot but nature doesn't tell us. just watch one of those interesting -- last week the giant sequoia's they are getting stressed. that means something. something is happening. so i don't have an answer for that. we are seeing, the problems i'm seeing in some the state is the lack of response in using the right tools for the mission. above the politics whose land is it? are we going to send people

there and are they going to get hurt? i want to hear any of that stuff. it's eminent. i'm sorry they are going to be fallen folk. either we do something about it or we don't do something about it but the fact is that fires going to get bigger and we have seen it happen. i was there. we get a lot of these folks coming in, how can you say that? because i was there. i've seen that when it was manageable and now it's not. we actually hiked out to one of those fires and i can talk about it and i might get someone mad that we went out there and put it out. direct action and no one knew we were there. we are not going to let that thing get any bigger. we hiked out there and put it out and got back to base by midnight. and they said the fire came in

and it was inaccessible. to a jumper denote the destination is the smokejumper? so when i was at the base they said come to the office. i would hear on the radio that fires an accessible and they would say what you think? is this a joke? there were some homes burning. there were some serious stuff going on. then i heard on the radio, you take a second and you do this. he said the want to go and i said hell yeah. one out and grabbed the gear loaded up. i remember getting there to the station and there was another crew from another state and they turn down the climate. that's fine. they turned it down and read it and it down they go out there and get hurt. that's fine. i'm a little upset thinking our way.

he said are you guys smoke jumpers? are you going out there to put about? as we were gearing up he walked away and he just stood at us as we left. we got there and a good time. the way back we were off coordinate and it took us two plus hours and it was some of the worst walking, that's a bad walk. the gentleman i was with i have never seen him on the ground and he got hit by something as he fell and i thought he was joking. you must be in pain. so this is 11:00 or 12:00 at night. so we are navigating we get out and finally it's done. we know for a fact that some of these folks are not using us to the full potential.

i think there are some upper management stuff that needs to be fixed. it's not rocket science at all. the dispatch center should have a command center captain and their hand at the thai response day meaning low relative humidity if you can leave a piece of bread out and in a few seconds it's toast that's a high threat they predicted they get a call smoke and the fire, we had to go check it out. we will see. we will call the district office and see what they want to do about it. california's guys are very good at that. they have low, medium and high response. if you're out there burning your ribs on your barbecue in a high-risk onstage guests was going to be at your front door in five minutes? you will have have a striking of fire fire engines, it does or at hoshyar crew probably two helicopters, a plane, an air attack and achieve.

i've been on that card. i about pete my pants. you wanted to hug him. he had no idea. he thought we were just showing up. he helped them put it out and he had no idea. barbecue fire return all responding units. and some states are so on it but when we do have high response you get there and she can do anything. but if you wait for fire to get big that protocol and the forest

service i would have to have changes immediately. there would be a command center dispatches. you guys have a command center in the dispatch? >> where small volunteer firefighters. >> there was a gentleman in there that just paces back and forth in these listening to stuff. he can go yes, yes, yes give them the world. a good example back when i was fighting fire and i'm going back and i see a plume of smoke and i know that area i can get on the radio. he response back, go ahead that means five fire engines strike teams whatever you have in a high response day. the command captain is going and then you hear the tones, all of the tones going off. there was now let's see what's going on.

come on, and like i said a lot of land. i don't don't care who's don't care who's landed is it costs a lot more money after-the-fact. they say i have a budget and you have a budget to fight a half a million egg or fire? let's do it now. that's really frustrating being a smokejumper having some of the largest fires where there are jumpers at the base and people say did you guys do anything and we say now we are going to go out. go out and take your radius and i will call you back and we did. we went out save some homes. we did, we save some homes. that was a good feeling. >> let's have five more minutes of questions by the meantime fill out your forms and pass them to the center island they will collect them for the drawing please. thank you.

a quick question. from your perspective how can we do a better job of really doing things ahead of time, mitigation and other things? what would you like to see the to make things a little easier on the other side? >> for safety of your home? >> not only our homes -- what would you suggest if you were head of the forest service what would you suggest in terms of doing a better job of preparing for these fires? >> one of the things we know for fact, a small fires going to get big. some of those weathered the coming back into harvest resources, we have seen it happen to areas in washington where people were pleased when they would see folks coming in.

we have to clean up our yard. that's a yard. those low-level watershed areas are homes that are in that area of that the first place and needs to be cleaned up but it's hard. where do you get the funding for that? we tell folks with large properties clean your home and whatnot and if you live in that urban interface or in the force you just have to come and realize your house might burn. i tell people have a drawing of your home in your drawer because it might come. there's nothing we can do to help her when she's very mad. how do you do that if you have a fire that started 20 miles away and there's so much energy now in the two days is that you're back door. how do you get folks in their

two lumber that? that's the part we are seeing with the stress force. i don't have the answer for that but i do have an answer for it the fire started to get the right tools and. we know that works. that's a fact. all the bases are 99.9%. how much did you lose as a smokejumper? you shake your head, zero, right? we are 99-point 9999% effective. we jumped a fire, things are out so we work. that's why we ruffalo lot of feathers. you don't make the decisions for us. when you get home you can google smokejumper user guide and i would challenge any fire chief in the fire service anyone that's in the command position or whatnot he needs to read that

and understand what we do. if you are from idaho, all over united states and you have a fire and you say jumping is too dangerous. you don't make that decision. we make that decision. when we get on at 600 feet where trained at land and trees and we are trained to land and water. we are trained to landed rocks and we are trained to land and canyons. where trained to do all those things we just call us. we will give you handshake and we will find an airport. we'll find a road. we will get out of the plane. we always joke all we want is a handshake and a ride back home. we will go and rent a car to come and pick us up. it's a joke but literally

there's forest service it literally saves too dangerous. we -- that place is bad news up there. i have heard witnesses say the percentage is too high. since 1939 until today there've only been six fatalities. i can't even count how many jumps currently we have. so it just shows the amount of safety and where professional firefighters. we are actually technicians. i'm not a fireman. i may united states technician. there's the government for you. >> two more questions. >> ebony smokejumpers tend to ploy to fight any colorado fires? >> where national resource that we can go anywhere in the

pacific northwest. interior and department of agriculture. so you have a desert and you have national forests. >> which fires did you help biting colorado? >> i couldn't tell you. when they are our big fires we are talking about the command center. jumpers are going to come in what we call overhead positions. half of these guys come by vehicle and they will fill in divisions, task force operations, logistics and these teams running around 50 or 60 in don't quote me on this. these guys come in and manage from floods, hurricanes. logistics, if you get heard hurt, sleeping, everything. you could be overhead and in

colorado there were smokejumpers overhead. everyday we would have a briefing that had to is the shows us every base and where every jumper is that. little acronyms. right now we have jumpers in washington. there are some in california. it is a jump operation. so there are out there. you can't take them all because they have 5000 on them. or more. one more question. ready for the test? its 100 questions in it's multiple choice. [applause]