Mann Gulch – 5 August 1949.

Seventy-five years ago today, twelve US Forest Service smokejumpers, and one USFS fireguard, lost their lives in a blow-up at Mann Gulch in Montana.

And people are still talking about it…

The smokejumpers landed at 4.10 pm, and at 5.56 pm a fire storm raced up the steep slope and swept over them.

It was a classic “Swiss Cheese” situation where several factors aligned to cause the disaster.

And remember, everything always seems inevitable in hindsight.

To their credit, the Forest Service drew from the hard-earned lessons of the tragedy and designed new training and safety measures. They also revisited wildfire suppression tactics as well as investing heavily in understanding the science of fire behaviour.

The story has been told many times and, in many ways, including books, music and film but, to my mind, the best critical analysis of what happened comes from the training material set out in the Staff Ride.

https://www.nwcg.gov/wfldp/toolbox/staff-ride/library/mann-gulch-fire