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    Smokejumper: A Memoir by One of America's Most Select Airborne Firefighters
    Unavailable
    Smokejumper: A Memoir by One of America's Most Select Airborne Firefighters
    Unavailable
    Smokejumper: A Memoir by One of America's Most Select Airborne Firefighters
    Ebook296 pages3 hours

    Smokejumper: A Memoir by One of America's Most Select Airborne Firefighters

    By Jason A. Ramos and Julian Smith

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    A rare inside look at the thrilling world of smokejumpers, the airborne firefighters who parachute into the most remote and rugged areas of the United States, confronting the growing threat of nature’s blazes.

    Forest and wildland fires are growing larger, more numerous, and deadlier every year — record drought conditions, decades of forestry mismanagement, and the increasing encroachment of residential housing into the wilderness have combined to create a powder keg that threatens millions of acres and thousands of lives every year. One select group of men and women are part of America's front-line defense: smokejumpers. The smokejumper program operates through both the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Though they are tremendously skilled and only highly experienced and able wildland firefighters are accepted into the training program, being a smokejumper remains an art that can only be learned on the job. Forest fires often behave in unpredictable ways: spreading almost instantaneously, shooting downhill behind a stiff tailwind, or even flowing like a liquid. In this extraordinarily rare memoir by an active-duty jumper, Jason Ramos takes readers into his exhilarating and dangerous world, explores smokejumping’s remarkable history, and explains why their services are more essential than ever before.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJul 14, 2015
    ISBN9780062319647
    Author

    Jason A. Ramos

    Jason A. Ramos has devoted twenty-six 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."

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    Reviews for Smokejumper

    4.5/5

    7 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Veteran smokejumper Ramos sheds insight into what it takes to be a member of this elite team. Read like a bunch of short stories...all fascinating and just the right length to keep my attention. A balanced story, though. Made me want to read more smoke jumper stories--but, glad I wasn't one in my younger days. Just when I thought it would be over, he started preaching a bit with a commercial at the end.
    • 5/5
      This is fascinating! Smoke jumpers are elite firefighters who jump out of planes with their gear packed in their jumpsuits and get to work battling wildfires. I happen to be interested in both fire and parachuting, but regardless this memoir is fast paced and full of exciting stories. Ramos covers the history of the field along with his own experiences, and he's obviously passionate about the subject. It's impressively well-written also.
    • 4/5
      Veteran smokejumper Ramos sheds insight into what it takes to be a member of this elite team along with firsthand accounts of what it is like in the middle of the worst fires in the Pacific Northwest. He also includes accounts of historical blazes and the impacts on policy and safety.
    • 4/5
      From the very first time I read a pre-released review of this book, I have wanted to read it. The author took the time to construct a balanced story. The book was full of facts and showed the human side of Smoke-jumping. By reading this book I gained a stronger and truer respect for the men and women that choose to fight wild fires for a living. The book took this reader on an emotional roller coaster ride. This book is well worth the time it takes to read it.
    • 5/5
      The author brings the reader behind the scenes into one of America’s oldest firefighting traditions – the men and women who jump out of planes to fight fires that are not accessible by other means. He weaves personal stories with the history of this group of brave firefighters and true stories of the tragedies they were involved in. He also makes a case for better equipment and continuing training to prevent future catastrophes. For all those who love fire, firefighting and a great read, this is it!
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this look at smokejumpers, the elite firefighters who parachute into the backcountry to fight wildland fires. Ramos has been a firefighter and smokejumper for around twenty years. In this memoir, he documents his own experiences, from working as a young firefighter in California to smokejumper training to lessons he's learned fighting fires; and he also intersperses his own experiences with the history of the U.S. smokejumpers.I grew up in the Midwest, and I had never heard of smokejumpers until I learned about this memoir. This was a really interesting look at a profession I never knew existed; it's definitely not one that I'll do (it fits well in the "Becky reads about extreme sports/experiences" category of books I read), but learning about the dangers that wildland firefighters endure gave me a lot of respect for them and the work they do. It was definitely a sobering read for right now, as there are numerous fires in California and the West, and also because of Ramos' mentions of global warming and its many impacts on fires.