Young Men and Fire

Young Men and Fire is a non-fiction book written by Norman Maclean and edited by his son, John Norman Maclean. It is an account of Norman Maclean's research of the Mann Gulch fire of 1949 and the 13 men who died there. The fire occurred in Mann Gulch in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness on August 5, 1949.

Synopsis

Norman Maclean and Laird Robinson try to forensically decipher the official report of the United States Forest Service of the fire, the testimony of the four men who fought the fire and lived, along with the research and report of Harry T. Gisborne (who would suffer a fatal heart attack at Mann Gulch two months later trying to get to the bottom of the tragedy) and his companion on the ridge that day, Robert Jansson. Jansson was ranger of the Helena National Forest's Canyon Ferry District, the area that included Mann Gulch, on duty the day of the fire. Maclean and Laird would also take the only two living survivors of the fire team (Wag Dodge died in 1955), Walter Rumsey and Robert Sallee, back to the scene of the fire in 1978, hoping that walking the ground again would help solve some of the missing pieces. Additionally Laird and Maclean would use the modern Fire Lab, and their mathematical analysis, advances in fire methodology not available in 1949, to search for answers to the fire.

With all of these pieces, several trips to Mann Gulch, and bantering ideas back and forth between each other, and Bud Moore, Ed Heilman, Rich Rothermel, Frank Albini, and other members of the U.S. Forest Service forest fire investigators, Maclean and Laird would conclude that the wind went in the opposite direction than was originally thought possible, and once the fire got started, it created its own unique weather system. Something that few thought possible before this research. Prior to their research it was always assumed that the wind was traveling south, or upstream, on the Missouri River at that time of day. But, they proved that the wind was traveling north, or downriver, and that the top of the ridge (jutting out as the river bends sharply to the northwest) separating Mann Gulch and Meriwether Canyon split this downriver wind into two winds, and that these two separate-smaller winds, would re-converge (on the other side of the ridge) in the heart of the gulch (at right-angles), to combine with the massive heat produced by the fire and the hot August afternoon. Additionally, the vegetation pattern played a part in how the fire developed and took the lives of the men. The south side of the gulch was of the mountains, with taller forested trees, but the north side of the gulch was of the plains, with smaller trees and dense grasses. This combination of contrasting vegetation, heat, air currents, and right-angle winds, would cause the fire to change direction instantly, trapping and killing most of the fire fighters in its path.

References

• Maclean, Norman, (1993). - Young Men and Fire. - Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. - ISBN 0226500624

External links

• Young Men and Fire - University of Chicago Press
  • Excerpt: p.70-75 ~ from Young Men and Fire - University of Chicago Press