Smokejumper: A Memoir by One of America's Most Select Airborne Firefighters - Hardcover

Jason A. Ramos; Julian Smith

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062319620 ISBN 13: 9780062319623

Publisher: Mariner Books, 2015

Synopsis

A rare inside look at the thrilling world of smokejumpers, the airborne firefighters who parachute into the most remote and rugged areas of the United States, confronting the growing threat of nature’s blazes.

Forest and wildland fires are growing larger, more numerous, and deadlier every year — record drought conditions, decades of forestry mismanagement, and the increasing encroachment of residential housing into the wilderness have combined to create a powder keg that threatens millions of acres and thousands of lives every year. One select group of men and women are part of America's front-line defense: smokejumpers. The smokejumper program operates through both the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Though they are tremendously skilled and only highly experienced and able wildland firefighters are accepted into the training program, being a smokejumper remains an art that can only be learned on the job. Forest fires often behave in unpredictable ways: spreading almost instantaneously, shooting downhill behind a stiff tailwind, or even flowing like a liquid. In this extraordinarily rare memoir by an active-duty jumper, Jason Ramos takes readers into his exhilarating and dangerous world, explores smokejumping’s remarkable history, and explains why their services are more essential than ever before.

About this title

About the Author

A U.S. Smokejumper in his 16th season, Jason A. Ramos has been fighting fires for nearly 26 years, from structural fires in Riverside County, California, to wildland firefighting across the West. Based out of the North Cascades Smokejumper Base in the rugged Cascades of Washington State, Ramos has fought fires from Alaska to Florida and nearly everywhere between. Recently he was featured on NRA Life of Duty.  Smokejumper: A Memoir is his first book.


Co-author Julian Smith is an award-winning travel writer whose work has appeared in Outside, National Geographic Adventure, National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian, Wired, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. He is the author of guidebooks to El Salvador, Ecuador, Virginia, and the southwestern United States, and he has been honored by the Society of American Travel Writers for writing the best guidebook of the year. He lives with his wife and daughter in Portland, Oregon.

From the Back Cover

A Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Bestseller

In a firestorm, nothing is safe: sand turns to glass, metal runs like water, wood and human beings vanish into ash.

Enter a world of breathtaking danger and beauty: In this remarkable memoir, veteran smokejumper Jason Ramos offers a rare inside look at the lives of airborne firefighters, the select few who parachute into the most rugged and remote wild areas to battle nature’s blazes. Featuring a foreword by author John Maclean (Fire on the Mountain), Ramos’s unforgettable firsthand account takes readers into his exhilarating and daring world.

Edition details

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0062319620
• ISBN 13: 9780062319623
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256