Men & Fire: Remembering Mann Gulch
By FireRescue Editor-in-Chief Tim Sendelbach

On this day, 61 years ago, one of the most tragic wildfires in U.S. history began in Mann Gulch, an area within the Gates of the Mountains Wild Area (now the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness), about 20 miles north of Helena, Mont. Although ignited by a lightning strike on the south side of the gulch on Aug. 4, the fire wasn’t spotted until around noon the next day. Ultimately, 13 firefighters, 12 of whom were smokejumpers, lost their lives. Today, we remember the fallen:

• Robert J. Bennett
• Eldon E. Diettert
• James O. Harrison
• William J. Hellman
• Philip R. McVey
• David R. Navon
• Leonard L. Piper
• Stanley J. Reba
• Marvin L. Sherman
• Joseph B. Sylvia
• Henry J. Thol, Jr.
• Newton R. Thompson
• Silas R. Thompson

Sequence of Events
James O. Harrison, the forest ranger who first spotted the fire on Aug. 5, fought the Mann Gulch fire single-handedly for hours until a crew of smokejumpers, which had been dispatched from Missoula, arrived in the late afternoon.

The crew foreman, Wagner Dodge, instructed the crew to position themselves on the north side of the gulch and move down gulch, toward the Missouri River. From there, the crew was to begin the firefight. Dodge left the men in that position, but returned shortly, as he had noticed a change in the appearance of the smoke from the fire. He was right to be concerned.

Lessons Learned
Several elements came together to cause the Mann Gulch tragedy. Issues such as the slope, or grade, of the gulch helped the fire spread faster; ungrazed, dry grass covered most of the area; and the weather was hot and dry with winds running “up gulch,” the same direction the men tried to run. There were also failures in leadership and communication, as Dodge didn’t know the crew well and had therefore not established a trusting relationship with them. And the crew’s one radio broke.

More than 60 years have passed since that fateful day in Montana, yet firefighters and researchers from all parts of the world continue to learn from the Mann Gulch incident. No wildland fire, to my knowledge, has been studied and evaluated in greater detail, and few, if any, have had such a dramatic affect on the tactics and technology we use in the wildland industry today.

Tactical Tips
• Never underestimate the importance of communications - Emergency and non-emergency communications are critical to the successful outcome of most every incident. No crew should operate in a hazardous environment (IDLH or otherwise) without a means of communications directly linking themselves with the incident commander and/or division/group supervisor.

• Crew Continuity – Crews who routinely work together are typically safer. Knowing the skills and capabilities of your crewmembers is absolutely critical.

• Firefighter Survival Training – No crewmember(s) should be deployed into an IDLH environment without some form of survival training. While Dodge’s escape fire has proven to be a successful tactic today, exploratory tactics in high-stress situations are seldom successful. The key to survival is training for worst-case scenarios prior to the event.

• Never underestimate the risk – Some of the most tragic incidents we respond to are initially described as routine incidents. Firefighters should never treat an uncontrolled incident as routine. Always exercise due caution, and never let your guard down.

• Situational awareness – The key to maintaining situational awareness is ongoing reconnaissance. Crews must use all available resources to identify the critical factors related to a fire – current size (How big is the fire?), topography (What’s the layout of the land? Do we have an escape route?), weather conditions (current and forecasted), available resources (on scene and requested), etc.

• Fireground Forecasting/Cue-based Decision-making - All firefighters should understand and practice fireground forecasting and cue-based decision-making (look for cues of rapid fire development: wind, low humidity, high temperatures, sloping topography, dense to sparse vegetation, etc. Always be a student of fire behavior.

Whether you’re a wildland firefighter, a structural firefighter or simply a student of the fire service, the Mann Gulch Fire provides lessons to be learned by us all. For more detailed coverage of the Mann Gulch incident, I recommend Norman Maclean’s book, Young Men and Fire, which is readily available in most bookstores throughout the country, and is a MUST READ for all firefighters and aspiring officers.