Panel discusses how lessons from Mann Gulch fire aided in battling Higgins Ridge blaze

AARP Montana hosted two viewings of “Higgins Ridge,” a nearly hourlong 2023 Montana PBS documentary on the fire that burned in the Idaho wilderness. It was shown twice Saturday at the Myrna Loy. There was an 11 a.m. private viewing attended by some family members of the 13 firefighters who died in 1949 Mann Gulch fire north of Helena and a 7 p.m. viewing for the public.

The U.S. Forest Service sent 20 smokejumpers to put out a wildfire burning on Higgins Ridge. The wind fueled the blaze into a blowup. The smokejumpers pivoted from battling the fire to fighting for their lives as the fire surrounded them. It was through the heroic efforts of Johnson Flying Service pilot Rob Snider, who along with Bill Magnuson, a Moose Creek Forest Service Ranger, flew into the fire.

Snider made several trips lifting firefighters out of the blaze in his helicopter “Red Legs,” nicknamed that because of its red rudders.

“Higgins Ridge” notes that one of the main lessons learned in Mann Gulch was to drill into firefighters to trust and follow leadership, noting many ignored or simply did not hear orders of what to do as the fire approached.

The film also points out that the Mann Gulch fire help spur development of 10 standard firefighting orders during the 1950s, Forest Service equipment and development centers, and fire science laboratories.

Both showings of “Higgins Ridge” included a panel discussion. Among the 11 a.m. panelists were moderator Colin Hardy, retired research program manager for the U.S. Forest Service in Missoula who has spent nearly 45 years in wildland fire research; Dale Graff, a retired state game warden who was also one of the smokejumpers who survived Higgins Ridge; Sara Brown, program manager for the Fire, Fuel, and Smoke Science Program at the Rocky Mountain Research Station and a former smokejumper; and David Turner, a retired Forest Service employee who began to study the Mann Gulch fire in earnest in 1992 and is now considered the leading expert on the fire. Turner regularly led tours into Mann Gulch for various officials and other groups. He continues to lead groups into the gulch.

“I am fairly certain the 13 guys who lost their lives in Mann Gulch in 1949 would be absolutely stunned at the fact that we’re here today remembering those guys,” Turner said at the 11 a.m. showing.

He noted the two fires serve as a life vs. death comparison of 20 lives saved vs. 13 lost.

“It’s firefighting experience vs. inexperience,” Turner said. “It’s a study of confidence in leadership vs. a lack of confidence in leadership. But mostly what I see when I compare the two fires is the progress that smokejumpers and general firefighter training (made) in slightly less than a dozen years which allowed wildland firefighters to survive unpredictable fires like Mann Gulch and Higgins Ridge.

“This remarkable progress came in large measure from the lessons learned in the Mann Gulch fire of Aug. 5, 1949,” Turner said.

Graff said no one talked about the Higgins Ridge fire for 60 years.

“I think it’s like a bad dream for most us,” he said. “I never told my wife or sons about this for years and years.”

He said Lisa Tate, executive director at National Museum of Forest Service History in Missoula, had decided a few years ago to interview the remaining firefighters about Higgins Ridge.

“She could only find 11-12 of us still around, she almost waited too long,” he joked. Graff noted Snider was 90 at the time of the recognition.

Brown talked about the second victims of fires, the families of the firefighters, who have to deal with the stress resulting from trying to help someone who has experienced trauma.

“Unfortunately second victims are something a lot of firefighters experience,” she said, adding the same is true in many “helping” professions.

Brown said she suffered a mid-air collision injury while parachuting as a smokejumper that has left her with a prosthetic leg. She said her jump partner, who walked away that day physically intact, has suffered more mental trauma than she ever suffered.

“He was much more emotionally scarred than I have been,” she said, adding he quit jumping the next season.

“It forever changed our lives in different ways,” she said.

Graff said he was never afraid of jumping from a plane, but still has nightmares about trees falling on him.

According to foresthistory.org, Mann Gulch fire crew foreman R. Wagner “Wag” Dodge ordered the men to drop their equipment and run back up the steep, rocky hillside. As the men retreated, Dodge stopped to set a small escape fire, creating a burned-over area that the fire would bypass. He directed the group toward this safe area, but due to the confusion the rest of the men continued up the hill.

In the Higgins Ridge documentary, several of those interviewed said it had since been drilled into firefighters to listen and follow their crew leaders.

Hardy said his father, Michael Hardy, was also a career fire scientist and was crew leader of the victim recovery team at Mann Gulch.

Mike Hardy was consulted by author Norman Maclean during the development of his book “Young Men and Fire.”

Colin Hardy said the Mann Gulch fire was a topic of conversation at his family’s dinner table “throughout my life.”

He said his dad’s concern over Maclean’s book was that Dodge not be brought to blame for what happened.

“So he was very motivated to work with Norman on that book,” Hardy said.

He asked for 15 seconds of silence for Juliana Turchetti, a firefighter pilot who died July 10 when her plane crashed while fighting the Horse Gulch fire northeast of Helena.

Nancy Anderson, AARP Montana’s outreach director, said they decided to host the screenings thinking it would be a great community event.

“We’re excited to be part of it,” she said.

The 75th anniversary observance of the Mann Gulch fire was organized by the Montana Discovery Foundation, which collaborated on events with Wild Montana, the National Smokejumper Association, the Forest Fire Lookout Association, the Montana Historical Society and the Museum of Mountain Flying.