-
Crewmembers access a fire near Mt. St. Helens, in southern Washington -
Jacob Martin and the crew clean the belly of one of the “Huey” Helicopters. -
A Washington Department of Natural Resources helicopter takes off from a landing zone after refueling. -
Squad boss Andrew Venema cuts down a hazard tree. -
Helicopter pilot Kenny Stewart and helicopter manager Ben Teske make radio contact with ground forces on the way to a fire. -
Crewmembers wait for the next call (left). Tools hang at the helicopter maintenance hanger in Olympia, Washington. -
Demi Garcia calls in a bucket drop (left). A helicopter flies over grasslands in Central Washington (right). -
Light filters through smoke from a fire near Mt. St. Helens. -
The Washington Helitack crew reads maps during a training session. -
Crewmembers pack up tools, gas and oil to load onto the helicopter. -
A crewmember shows off a freshly inked “Smokey the Bear” tattoo. -
Crewmembers play cribbage while they wait for the next orders to come down the line. -
The Ahtanum Hand Crew rests after completing the line around a fire in Anacortes, Washington. -
Colton Witt takes a breath on a fire in Anacortes, Washington. -
Micheal Herbert walks through a burned forest. -
Crewmembers avoid the heat at a helibase by spending downtime in a van.
In the remote areas of Washington state, when a flame starts in the dry season, it can quickly turn into blaze. Eating up dried needles and brittle grasses, it fans out and envelops more fuel, sometimes aided by the wind and beating sun. Time is of essence for wildland firefighters, and Washington’s Helitack crew aims to get the better of the flames by departing by helicopter at the start of a fire within just five minutes. Photographer Jasper Gibson, a wildland firefighter himself, captured the routine of his crew during the summer of 2016 with a pocket-sized camera.
Helitack firefighting in Washington started in 1960s, with fragile-looking helicopters holding just 50 gallons of water to dump on fires. Today’s helicopters drop hundreds of gallons at a time, while firefighters work at the fire’s level on Washington’s prairies and montane forests. Amid flames and gusts of wind, the crew clears brush, digs trenches and directs wildfires to prevent their spread. The on-call nature of the Helitack crew means that firefighters’ bags are always packed and at the ready. Sometimes, as Gibson’s photos show, that can mean a lot of down time. “Forget your life at home, at least for four to five months,” Gibson says. “Your coworkers become your family, your duffle bag becomes your wardrobe and you wake up every morning not knowing where you will be for the next two weeks.”
— Anna V. Smith
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
