Through interviews with family, colleagues, and the lone survivor, a former hotshot pieces together their final hours and the fatal choices that will haunt firefighting forever.
Kristen McQuillan
Kristen McQuillan is an education consultant and a project director for TNTP who spent over a decade working for Baltimore City public schools as a teacher, instructional coach, and administrator. She is a doctoral student at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. The views expressed in this essay are her own.
In 1949, 15 smoke jumpers parachuted into Montana to fight what they believed to be a routine forest fire in an area known as Mann Gulch. Headed by foreman Wag Dodge, the young men expected the fire to be expelled within a matter of hours. Once on the ground, Dodge quickly became concerned as he realized the fire wasn’t following typical patterns. Within minutes, the fire had exploded surrounding the men on both sides of the gulch.
in 1949 a forest fire broke out in mangulch, montana. smoke jumpers were parachuted in a team of 15 headed by a foreman named wag dodge. the fire exploded. it was moving over 600 feet a minute. faster than most people could ever run. and so 15 firefighters were trapped. wag dodge had an idea. he knew that they would lose the race back to the top of the ridge, so he suddenly stopped, he lit a match, and he lit a fire at his own feet. and the fire spread around him. i imagine the other smoke jumpers thought the guy was crazy, but his idea was this if i burn the fuel around me, when the fire comes and overtakes me i ll be safe, i ll
wag dodge survived, nearly unharmed, in his escape fire. it s just tragic to think of the answer being there but just in the moment not able to see it. that s how embedded people get in the status quo. they can t recognize an invention when it s among them, and they can t give up their old habits. we re in mann gulch. health care, it s headed for really, really bad trouble. the answer s among us. can we please stop and think and make sense of the situation and get out of it? it s the same challenge. we have had enough! what do you want? health care! when do we want it? now!