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6 A smokejumper’s most important task is to
create a firebreak. That’s a stretch of ground
in which there’s nothing left to burn: no trees,
branches, shrubs, or leaf piles. Smokejumpers
try to make the fire burn itself out by taking

away its fuel.
7 But why not reach the fire from the
ground? Why jump into it? “There is a rule
that says the closest available resources must
respond to a fire. That’s often the

smokejumpers,” says Withen. A fire truck
thirty miles away from a wildfire could take
an hour or more to reach the blaze. Airplanes
are much faster. “Even if we are one hundred
A trainee adjusts her bag at the U.S. miles away, we can be working on that fire
Forest Service Smokejumping Training
Center in Missoula, Montana. within thirty-five minutes,” says Withen.
8 There are close to a dozen smokejumping
bases throughout the United States. Thanks to
Practice, the smokejumpers and other dedicated

Practice, firefighters, many lives and thousands of
acres of wild land are saved each year.
Practice!

timid If you are timid, you are very careful and often fearful.
9 Smokejumping is not for the timid. strenuous If an activity is strenuous, it takes great effort or a lot
First, would-be smokejumpers of energy.
must pass a strenuous endurance
test. Then begins six weeks of
grueling “boot camp”: physical
endurance training (running,
swimming, aerobics, weightlifting,
and more) and parachute training
(jump skills, landing rolls, and
chute packing). “If you don’t like
making your bed, you won’t like
packing your parachute,” says
Withen. It takes an expert thirty-
five to forty minutes to properly
pack a chute; a beginner might
take two days!

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