Fires

We have recently been having a lot of wild fires and forest fires in Utah.  I have had some experience with fighting fires.  I was employed by the Forest Service the summer after I graduated from high school.   My missionary companion in Goslar,  Elder Kirk Ellsworth was a smoke-jumper and brought slides of the fires that he fought with him on his mission and we used to show them to our investigators.

During that summer (1952), I helped fight two forest fires. The first one was the Dishpan Butte fire. This was about halfway between Dickinson Park and Smith Lake. We got the call one evening after work and drove up and reached Dickinson Park before dark.

We started up the trail and then it slowly got dark and we lost the trail. We couldn't see the blaze marks on the trees, but we could see the fire lighting up the night sky so we headed up the mountain in the dark. I had a Coleman lantern to light the way. I stumbled and shook the lantern and the mantle broke and we were without light at all. We continued to walk using a flashlight intermittently to see where we were, because we knew that if the batteries failed we would have no light at all. We walked on through the night feeling our way along.

I was walking along during the climb upward and was in the lead. I decided to stop and take a rest and so when we were ready to go again the one with the flashlight turned it on and shone it into the path that we were to take. We could not see anything ahead and on closer inspection we were on top of a giant boulder and the ground, on the way we were going, was about 40 feet below us. We were spared a nasty fall. We eventually got to the fire and started digging a fire line with a shovel and Pulaski. (A Pulaski is a fire fighting instrument with an axe blade on one side of the head and a adze blade at right angles on the other side of the head.)  I worked all night and when the morning came we had pretty well contained the fire. We spent the next few days going over the burned area and putting out hot spots.   The fire would smolder in the dead pine needles called pine duff. If it was not put out it might burn like a punk that you use to light fire crackers and it has been known to smolder for a winter even with snow on top of it and then breakout in a forest fire the next summer when things got hot.

The next fire was on the Wiggins Fork above Dubois. There was quite a large crew of firefighters fighting that fire and it seemed like it was better organized. It took a long time to drive up to the fire. We drove up to Dubois and then to Horse Creek and then took a dirt road to the Wiggins Fork (River). We could drive right up to the base of the fire, but had to drive through the river two or three times to get to the base camp. Some of the water would get into the engines and short out the spark and then the truck or jeep would be stranded and have to be towed to shore.

After a few days most of the firefighters went home and there were about 6 men left as the mop up crew. I was left to tend the camp and to cook. I cooked the breakfast and then fixed a lunch for them to carry with them and then I would cook the evening meal.

They left plenty of food for us to eat. I had a hindquarter of beef and about 8 hams and plenty of eggs and other provisions. I had to learn how to make coffee, because everybody but me drank coffee. They said that it was good, but I don't know.

I would cut a big round steak from the hindquarter and then cook about two and a half pounds per person. When we had ham I would give them three big slices. Most of the time I would boil the potatoes, because I only had a wood camp cook stove to cook on. I don't remember much else about it except that I like to fish and most of them did not like fish.  

I did not bring my fishing gear with me. One day as I was walking along the river I found some fishing line and when I had gathered it all in I found a hook on the end of it. I found a branch that I could make a pole from and so all I needed was some bait. There were some grasshoppers along the shore of the river and I managed to catch one. Now I could fish.

I managed to catch a fish and then another, but my grasshopper was looking pretty sad, by now. I had heard that you could use fish eyes as bait, so I decided to try it. It worked well and I was now in the fishing business. I ate the fish for lunch and then every day when I got the dishes done and the camp cleaned, I would go fishing and eat the fish for lunch. Every morning I would have to catch a grasshopper. Finally I lost my hook and had to try to make one, but it didn't work as well as the store bought kind. When we finished with the mopup we broke camp and had to leave all the perishable food there. We didn't have space to carry it back with us, so we left it for the bears and wild animals to enjoy. The rest of the summer was spent finishing the road work on the loop road.

Fighting fires is a dangerous business.  I am still careful not to leave a fire that I have used burning.  To make sure that the fire is completely out you should pour water on it and then run your fingers through the ashes to make sure that everything is cold.  Your great-great grandfather Wright Clark used to throw his lighted cigarettes out of the car window driving down the roads in Florida.  I told your grandmother that I was afraid that if her grandfather came to Wyoming to visit he would burn down the whole state.

Be careful with fire!!