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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who did Jansson, Sallee, and Roos find alive on the other side of the ridge from the other survivors?
(a) Daily.
(b) Sylvia.
(c) Thol.
(d) Hellman.

2. Who told the author about the Mann Gulch fire when he came to town?
(a) A neighbor.
(b) The fire marshall.
(c) The shop keeper.
(d) The postmistress.

3. Where did the author go after climbing over the ridge away from the Fish Creek fire?
(a) The fishing lodge he had read about in a brochure.
(b) The fishing lodge owned by his father's cousin.
(c) The hunting lodge where he and his father had hunted together.
(d) The hunting lodge used by the locals in the winter.

4. Who were the only permanent residents of the town near the author's cabin?
(a) Sheep herders.
(b) Loggers.
(c) Firefighters.
(d) Farmers.

5. What did the Forest Service learn from the fires in 1910?
(a) Smokejumpers need to jump behind a fire.
(b) Smokejumpers are not the most efficient way to get men to a fire.
(c) Firefighters should attack a fire by walking in front of it.
(d) Get firefighters on the ground as soon as possible.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. How old was the author when he joined the Forest Service?

3. Where did the author begin running when the Fish Creek fire caught at the next fire line?

4. Where was the author when he was startled to see a terribly burned deer?

5. Where did the Fish Creek fire actually burn?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. What did the Fish Creek fire look like as it jumped the trail? What choices did the author have the moment he decided to stand in front of the fire to try to put it out?

3. Where was the big fire the author had fought when he was in the Forest Service? How did the people living in the area support themselves and their families?

4. As the author was running up the hillside away from the creek, where was the fire? What choices did he have for escape? What happened when he was half way up the hillside?

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

6. What did the author know about the Mann Gulch fire based on his experience with fires as a young man?

7. What did the author know about hiking boots? Why were they important? What kind of boots was he wearing the day of the Fish Creek fire? Why?

8. What actually happened at the Fish Creek fire that was not part of the plan? How did the fire spread? What surprises of nature awaited the Forest Service firefighters?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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