Considered the Special Operations units of the firefighting world, smokejumpers are on the front lines of “the worst drought on record”*. This perfectly timed first‐hand account offers a dramatic lens through which to cover the crisis facing the American West.
Forest and wildland fires are growing larger, more numerous, and deadlier every year — as record drought conditions, decades of misguided forestry science, and the increasing encroachment of development into the wilderness have combined to create a powder keg that threatens millions of acres and thousands of lives annually. Yet little is known about the select group of men and women who serve as the nation’s front‐line defense against fire, perhaps the most vivid and dangerous consequence of our changing climate: smokejumpers. Considered the nation’s tier‐one wildland firefighting resource, smokejumpers are highly skilled and rigorously trained airborne firefighters who parachute into the most remote wild areas of the United States, serving an essential role in the fight against the growing threat of nature’s blazes.
In SMOKEJUMPER: A Memoir By One Of America’s Most Select Airborne Firefighters (William Morrow Hardcover; On Sale 7/17/2015), Jason A. Ramos, a United States Smokejumper who has devoted 26 years of his life to the fire service and fought some of the biggest fires in modern memory (including 2014’s 250,000‐acre Carlton Complex fire, “the largest fire in [Washington] state’s history”), gives a rare inside look at the extraordinary world of these men and women who put their bodies on the line to protect their country. An extremely select group, only 450 to 475 jumpers are on duty in the U.S. every year on average, and fewer than 6,000 people have ever earned their smokejumper wings in the 75 years that the program has existed.
In this gripping and elegant memoir, Ramos gives readers an under‐the‐parachute look at the life of a jumper, and the impressive though little‐known legacy of the smokejumper program, whose early members served as World War II paratroopers. Ramos tells stories of his humble beginnings as a 17 year‐old volunteer in Southern California, his years as part of a Forest Service helitack crew, and, ultimately, achieving his dream of becoming a smokejumper. He shares stories of comradery from the base, thrilling missions from the field, as well as the tragic turns their jobs can take, reflecting on the 1994 South Canyon Fire, 2001 Thirtymile Fire, and 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire, among others.
In SMOKEJUMPER, Ramos observes, “Wildland firefighting as changed dramatically in the past decade. As fires have grown, the mind‐set of fighting them has shifted, too” (pg. 209). He makes a compelling case that jumpers are the ideal tool for these extraordinary times—a fact that he argues in book’s final chapter has unfortunately not yet been fully grasped by decision makers.
ABOUT JASON RAMOS
JASON A. RAMOS has devoted 26 years of his life to the fire service. His career began at the age of 17 as a volunteer with the Riverside County Fire Department, then progressed to wildland firefighting in Southern California. Now a smokejumper in his sixteenth season, he is based in Winthrop, WA, at the North Cascades Smokejumper Base, the “birthplace of smokejumping.”