2. Where did the firefighters go as the fire spread toward them in Fish Creek?
(a) They backed up to the sidehill trail.
(b) They backed up to the foot of the mountain.
(c) They backed up to the water's edge.
(d) They backed up to the fire station.

3. When did the author first notice the Mann Gulch fire?
(a) August, 1948.
(b) June, 1949.
(c) July, 1949.
(d) August, 1949.

4. Where was the author when he saw smoke coming out of black holes in the snow?
(a) While staying in Lolo Hot Springs.
(b) While returning home from the Fish Creek fire.
(c) While ice fishing on the lake.
(d) While hunting in Fish Creek.

5. What important piece of equipment was broken in the parachute landing at Mann Gulch?
(a) The food rations.
(b) The water barrel.
(c) The radio.
(d) The first aid kit.

Short Answer Questions

1. What are the natural components of a blowup?

2. In the Fish Creek fire, where was the author standing when the fire jumped?

3. When was the U.S. Forest Service established?

4. What did Jansson send up to the survivors of the Mann Gulch fire?

5. What did the first Smokejumpers call the fires into which they jumped?

Short Essay Questions

1. When was the fire at Mann Gulch? Where was the author at the time of the fire? When the author arrived in the small town at Seely Lake, how did he learn of the fire at Mann Gulch? What did he learn about the death of the smokejumpers who were sent to fight the fire?

2. What are the roles of the foreman and the second-in-command in a jump team of firefighters? What is each man responsible for during the approach to the fire?

3. What are the two causes of fires? What caused the Mann Gulch fire? Where did the fire start? How?

4. When the author returned to the spot in which he had stood when the fire jumped the trail, what did he realize about himself? What did he realize about the fire?

5. What was the profile of a smokejumper in the 1940s?

6. Where was the author when the fire spread to the side hill trail, the firefighters' second line of defense? What important decision did he make right as he saw the fire jump from one side of the trail to the other?

7. What important question did the author ask Mrs. Brown after his experience with the fire at Fish Creek? What was her answer?

8. Why did Dodge, Sallee, and Rumsey escape death from the fire, and the other men, including Hellman and Diettert, did not?

9. Who was Robert Jansson? What was his part in the Mann Gulch fire?

10. To what did Maclean compare the smokejumper's jump from the plane? Why?

(see the answer keys)

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