A look at how smokejumpers parachute in to fight fires

When wildfires rage in areas that can't be accessed by road, smokejumpers are called in. These teams parachute in to dangerous areas to fight the blazes. Itay Hod takes a look at how they do it.
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[@roguekoala71]

Can we please pay these guys and gals more with better benefits 😒 Instead of sending tax dollars overseas to some ungrateful nation?

[@ATrane-1842]

Hard to believe that plane can fly with the weight of their balls

[@MLGxBXRxPRO]

It's just skydiving it's not that extreme. You want to see something extreme try saturation diving

[@gazor33]

Best of the best 👌. Thank you guys 😊

[@robertbragg9364]

God bless them all, and I hope they all make it home safe❤🎉

[@seth9871]

No, of course they don't jump directly into the flames. They land nearby and hike to the fire.

[@howdyfolks5134]

2:39 dude has every girls dream bbl

[@BrayanCarmona-kr7vt]

My man got that cake. 😂

[@dallasyap3064]

These firemen don't get enough love. When the term "elite units" are used, they're often associated with military SOFs, police or other law enforcement's tactical, investigative or even intelligence teams, but not to firemen.

[@FateOfAllFoolslol]

Crazy how they dont even get paid much.

[@sandyMlud]

The tribes who have fire crews have had smoke jumpers since the 80s. Im wondering how many of those 400 smoke jumpers include the tribal jumpers?

[@ericclaptonsrobotpilot7276]

Since they are probably employed by the BIA I would say yeah.

[@johnnyhorizon8368]

BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) does not sponsor any smokejumpers based. Helitack crews yes but smokejumpers, no. Forest Service & Bureau of Land Management sponsors smokejumpers. That doesn’t mean to say former BIA firefighters haven’t left BIA to become Smokejumpers for FS or BLM.

[@chriskelly6559]

Fire season doesn't stop anymore. Really bad firestorms are here to stay at a cost of billions upon billions.

[@user-cw1nq1bv2l]

Thank you for your service!!!!!

[@rodrigolerenagutierrez3708]

Thank you for your service 🇺🇸 Ps that’s a lot of junk in the trunk 😅

[@FishKepr]

I took a tour of a smokejumper base and I asked a question that I’ve always had: Once the job is done, how do they get out? Answer: They walk, carrying everything they brought in. 😮

[@MarkGTLLC]

Yep. Normal "leg" WFFs like I was have to be able to cover 3 miles in 45 mins with 45 lbs as our base physical fitness test. Jumpers do the same thing except with 110 lbs. The injury rate is really high, it's rare to find a jumper with a few seasons in who doesn't have a jacked up back, knees, ankles, or "yes" from jump injuries.

[@BrayanCarmona-kr7vt]

​@@MarkGTLLCI'm sure the pay is good though. If they pay them well for a job that seems fun and dangerous at the same time I'm all in too. I'd be ok with $85,000 a year to start.

[@MarkGTLLC]

@BrayanCarmona-kr7vt maybe if they worked for CalFire, bud. I've been in wildland fire for almost 20 years, USFS Fire for 15. I was a Captain on assignment in Heber City UT during high fire danger the summers of 2020 and 21. I was making $21/hour. The Arby's in town had a sign: "Now hiring 15 year olds - $15/hr." Most Jumpers made what I did - or less. Even with the "retention bonus" and reclassification to our own series, I STILL would not have cleared $85k on a busy year - btw "busy year" for us (Wildland firefighter in general) is over 1000 hours of OT. Read that again it's not a typo: 1000 hours. Of. Overtime.

[@edwinlipton]

Recruitment of men like these would be a win win. We have them in public schools across the country. There the school athlete's looking for a future before, tobbaco, pot, drugs take um into the streets. Start a recruiting campaign in the 8th to 12th grade, with there projected exspected annual pay from 18 years, "keeping them in school till then", to there retirement years. Do it now,, and every year forward.

[@prisonmike9186]

This is David Goggins job

[@Glassed_in_Nature]

I was just about to comment this lol. Goggins is a beast

[@p.ipebomb]

Helitack, Smoke jumpers, Hand crews, Engine Crews. I wanna be a Wildland firefighter!

[@unknownoutdoors530]

i respect firefighters wayyy more then cops

[@Evil_pinata]

This should be offered or taught to high school students as a summer job. I had no clue about this sort of stuff until several years ago.

[@mountainconsumer]

They are the ones that start the most fires.

[@SuperChriscunningham]

What really had a negative impact with the FS was the consent decree

[@adamm121212]

And most of them don't even make 35,000 dollars a year. Good job America

[@BabyBoomersDoomer]

$17 a hour no way

[@MarkGTLLC]

I was a "Fire Captain" (leg not jumper) fir the FS and making $21/hr - that was before the retention bonus and WFF job series conversion though. You do it for the service to people and caring for resources not to get rich.

[@edwinlipton]

@@BabyBoomersDoomer if its money your after,, your not suited at any job. Pay IS important too feed the gut. Being happy at that chosen job feeds the heart, soul, MIND and body. Then the rest becomes easy.

[@BabyBoomersDoomer]

@@edwinlipton how much do you make a hour

[@edwinlipton]

@@BabyBoomersDoomer for an ever increasing inflation driven economy,, never enough. Retired now, Master Contract Plumber Const. @ 1997 a competitive bidding price was a mere $27-30 per man hour x number of employees req for job+ 10%. Not enough too live long into this economy. I was really forced into closing due to physical health related injuries from many long un addressed accidents. But I loved it so much,, I'd have done it for free my entire life. " If" Paraylization were not near as it was and afecting other internal issues. I only exspress this because of the previous comment leading to your question,,, how much. Find your place in life by doing what you desire with joy internally as your pay, the bonus's will come with abundance in those moments. Those smoke jumpers love what they do. I agree,, there risks are far greater than mine were, and THEY deserve the FULL FUNDING REQUIRED too keep them there, focused on what they love without worry about income for there families waiting for there return. Same for our active duty "service" military, officers of law enforcement, and on the ground fire fighters. They do it and only succeed because they love it. Unlike so many other under qualified/overpaid employed by need or luck at jobs they dont really want.

[@edwinlipton]

Find this a true honorable career. Course I am to old @68. Only 400? Thats not good to hear. Seems thee ansewr is as old as 1939. When you've got a winning stratetigy, exspand it. Quit wasting money on befutteled drones, heat sensors, planes, computors and PERSONAL who DON'T want to work! These guys actually enjoy the risky hard, hot work, GIVE THEM THE LIONS SHARE of the BUDGET and hire more like them, more planes and useable equipment + training for the recruited. Hitting these fires BEFORE they get out of control.

[@MarkGTLLC]

Plenty of fres now are "out of control" before dispatch even gets a response toned out. Source: been on several over the last two decades where things were ape at the start of the IA.

[@edwinlipton]

@@MarkGTLLC thats for sure. These fires turned WILD have there beginnings, reqaurdless of so called activist led global warming. I am old enough to know this for fact. The planet goes thru cyclonic changes in years. We had the Dust bowl of the 20's 30's. We had droughts in the 60's -70's and wildfires were nothing new. The smoke jumpers got too them before they broke into WILD fires, and the taxpayer funded National Forest "SERVICE",, actually smaller, less tech savy, obsolete, old school tools and equipment, at much less exspense to taxpayers, ACTUALLY WORKED at maintaining our forest for less pay to medigate the danger of fires turning into WildFires. Sorry for the rant.

[@edwinlipton]

​@@MarkGTLLCtoo busy stuffing there face's,, and resting.

[@MarkGTLLC]

@edwinlipton speaking from experience there, sir?

[@edwinlipton]

@@MarkGTLLC sandwich eatin, No. But losing 18 acres to decades of unmaintained/ "SERVICE" of the NFS on the opposit side of my property line in the 418'000 acre Bootleg fire July 2021,,, yes. I also had an Uncle who actually "Worked" as one of the few personal of the National Forest Service in the mid 1960's in California. I'd spend summers with him and my Aunt Ruby as a kid out of school for summer vacation. Sometimes ride along with him while he and another would drag out fallen pines, cut and collect and haul um to a designated burn pile. That's what the "SERVICE". was back then with less over bloated taxes spent, fewer personal and less advanced equipment. Labor intense, back breaking pride in a job well done. Uncle Bogus. We had wild fires back then too. Droughts as well. But it was midigation in many, kept them managable.

[@mountainconsumer]

Calf Canyon fire the fire fighters caused that.

[@hellyapex7331]

He THICC

[@Tanglevine]

Did you say earlier than normal ? Come on , really.

[@RobustArid379]

Jumanji

[@DaJellomanj]

more like smoke dumper

[@michaeldeierhoi4096]

This report could have been better if it had been more aware of the current awareness that the early fire fighting to put out all fires led to our current circumstance of too much undergrowth in forests. This led to fires growing too fast and too hot. Fires could race up the undergrowth to the tree tops leading to crowning fires in which fires run along the tree tops. On windy days such fires could outrun a man. Now combined with the hotter drier conditions of climate change these fires are more dangerous and explosive thxn anything that used to happen. These fires repeatedly put whole towns and risk. And unfortunately there is no end in sight or signs of these fires slowing down.

[@jameslasswell5821]

How many women are there. Equal rights equal fight

[@ericclaptonsrobotpilot7276]

Firefighting jobs in the federal government are open to anyone.