Working for Senate

Working with the McCall Smokejumpers

July 2007

Idaho had one of its most intense fire seasons in history in the summer of 2007. Larry LaRocco gained a greater understanding of what a wilderness firefighter’s life is like when he spent a day at the McCall Smokejumpers Base.

Up to 70 people are based in McCall each summer, ready to fight fires on six adjacent national forests as well as the Hells Canyon Recreation Area and the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area. (Fun fact: As a young staffer for Sen. Church, LaRocco was on the U.S. Senate floor with the great senator when the wilderness bill passed in 1980.) “This is an attack squadron,” LaRocco said. “They are the first ones on a fire. It’s the Delta Force of firefighting.”

LaRocco was assigned to work with smokejumper Renee Jack, one of six women stationed at the McCall base. (In fact, McCall was home to the nation’s first female smokejumper, who completed training at the base in 1981.) She showed him how to rig a cargo chute, which is what he did most of the day. He also pitched in cleaning gear and packing cargo boxes.

About 10:30 during the daily news and safety briefing, “a huge bell went off, and Renee said, ‘we’re going,’” LaRocco recalled. The smokejumpers know in advance which team will take the next call, and they have eight minutes from the time the bell rings to get their gear, double check everything for safety, and be on the airplane. “They don’t know where they’re going, necessarily.” As it turned out, their destination was the Murphy Complex fire southwest of Twin Falls, which would become the nation’s largest fire. When LaRocco visited the McCalll base in July 2007, Western wildfire conditions were already like that of a typical August, and they’d barely let up by late summer.

As the crew left, LaRocco remained at the base to continue packing chutes and talking with other firefighters. Smokejumpers come from all walks of life. Some work full time for the Forest Service, but the ranks also include teachers, construction workers, and ski instructors. They earn a base pay of about $15 an hour plus time-and-a-half overtime and hazard pay. It’s possible to earn $30,000 or $40,000 in a season, but this is dangerous, demanding work.

“They have to be tough and in great physical shape,” LaRocco said. But there are lighter moments, too. LaRocco described meeting one smokejumper from Twin Falls who had just gotten engaged – to another jumper as they leapt out of a plane. “Talk about a hot romance!” he said, laughing.