Smokejumpers are an elite group of wildland firefighters tasked with parachuting into the heart of remote wildfires to stop them before they spread. Self-sufficient for up to 48 hours, these ...

Called Smokejumpers, they parachute directly into the flames. When the siren sounds, Smokejumpers pack on their gear and load into a Shorts C-23 Sherpa plane.

The alarm sounds, and within 15 minutes the smokejumpers have their heavy packs and are on the runway. They might fly a couple hundred miles, then jump out of the plane, count to five and pull the ...

And each August, the Forest Service remembers the 12 smokejumpers and a local firefighter killed in 1949 battling Montana's Mann-Gulch fire. Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com ...

Smokejumpers are federal firefighters who skydive out of planes into inaccessible areas to put out forest fires where they start. Tools and supplies are then parachuted, making them self ...

SUNRIVER, Ore. — Smokejumpers are working to put out a human-caused fire burning near Moraine Lake in the Three Sisters wilderness. Incident 513 is burning at the junction of the South Sister ...

Many smokejumpers wear additional armor — hockey pads or motocross gear — for further protection. The whole package, including the parachute, weighs 70 to 90 pounds.

MISSOULA, Mont. — Local smokejumpers are being recognized in Missoula this weekend for their tireless efforts to keep Montana communities safe during the last 85 years.

Smokejumpers at the base in Redmond fly in Sherpa SD3-60s, twin-engine turboprop aircraft. The planes were once used by the military in wars such as in Afghanistan.

by Matt Gray Wed, October 14th 2015 at 6:48 PM Updated Tue, May 10th 2016 at 3:34 PM still1013-00000-jpg-1198111-ver1-0.jpg TOPICS: Smokejumpers work with fewer resources in late season late fire ...