Bulletin E-Edition:
more photosSmokejumping rookies Ben Bell, from left, Andrew Pattison and Marcel Potvin practice how they would let themselves down from trees or power lines during training Tuesday at the U.S. Forest Service's Redmond Air Center. If trainees make a mistake, they have to do squats with a large lava rock.
Pete Erickson / The Bulletin
Redmond trains new class of smokejumpers
A dozen rookies parachute their way to the pros
By Kate Ramsayer / The Bulletin
Published: May 24. 2007 4:00AM PSTThe dozen rookies practiced how to properly exit an aircraft, how to roll when they touch down and how to rappel down trees if their parachute gets caught.
It's the second week of training for a new class of smokejumpers at the U.S. Forest Service's Redmond Air Center. They will eventually parachute into remote areas to fight wildfires. And on Tuesday, the trainees were practicing procedures and getting familiar with gear, said Jeff Robinson, paraloft manager with the smokejumpers.
"It's a pretty busy time for them," he said.
The soon-to-be smokejumpers are also doing a lot of tree climbing training, in case they need to retrieve parachutes or dropped cargo, parachute manipulation exercises and procedures for what to do while in the aircraft.
Returning smokejumpers also have a refresher training class to get them ready for fire season.
"The stuff we do is pretty specialized to our jobs," he said, noting that it's very different from parachuting for fun and even new to some who have military experience.
This year, if the dozen rookies pass the training course, eight will be based at Redmond and four will return to the air center in Redding, Calif. That's more new additions than Redmond has on average, Robinson said, since most years there are only four or five new smokejumpers.
"We're trying to increase our numbers and keep our numbers up," he said. "The last few years we've been really busy; there's been a lot of demand for our folks."
Fire season already has begun for the smokejumpers - six were dropped into the Umatilla National Forest to fight two fires, and others have been sent to Florida and Georgia to help with blazes there.
"We get so busy, we have a hard time keeping people here and available," he said.
Kate Ramsayer can be reached at 617-7811 or at kramsayer@bendbulletin.com.
ARTICLE ACCESS: This article is among those available to all readers. Many more articles are available only to E-Edition members. Sign up today!
blog comments powered by Disqus
