“Then came that fateful 20^th of August.” Elens Koch in 1942 - who was the Lolo Forest supervisor in 1910. On August 19, 1910 the day held promise as many miles of fire line were held, and folks were beginning to think that perhaps the loss would not be as great as once thought. All this was about to change as for the next two days gale force winds blew from the southwest, these winds the fuel the little fires needed to grow in to larger ones. With this “new life” the fires quickly overcame the fire lines, the fire lines held just hours before. The fire raged on as a hurricane, and Wallace Idaho lay directly in its path. By the evening of August 20^th, 1910, one third of this once prosperous town was reduced to ash, with an estimated dollar loss of one million – with two souls having perished.

With many difficulties faced in the transportation infrastructure of the day, the firefighters who had lost their lives trying to prevent this loss from fire, those lives lost fighting “the beast”, were buried where they lay. Many burned beyond any hope of recognition with many of their families not being notified for days to months later, some being from across our oceans, with no identification, and for those that did have it, correspondence taking weeks to reach them.

100 years ago today in the early morning Forest ranger Ed Pulaski, having been in Wallace to restock his supplies, headed to the outskirts of town, his wife Emma and adopted daughter Elise walking alongside of him to the trailhead. Before leaving to return to his crew Pulaski told his family, “be prepared to save yourselves”, he continued, as recounted by his daughter Emma to say, “Goodbye, I may never see you again.” Then Pulaski headed off toward his crew and the fire.

Today at noon the Forest Service will have a re-dedication ceremony. At Nine-Mile Cemetery in Wallace, Idaho standing at the memorial for those souls lost in Pulaski’s crew. This is the site where those brave men were laid to rest, those men who risked a lot to save a lot, those men who helped to shape the future of forest firefighting. Please join us today, wherever you may be and observe a moment of silence for the brothers we lost a century ago – today.