SOUTH CANYON FIRE PHOTOS
Photos from the book FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN by John N. Maclean. Click on any small framed photo for a larger version. |
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The date of July 6, 1994 will be forever burned into the memories of the thousands of people who work in wildland fire. On that afternoon, on the slopes of Storm King Mountain in Colorado, a tragedy in wildland fire took the lives of 14 firefighters. It was an eerie repeat of the 1949 fire in Mann Gulch, and John Maclean spent nearly five years researching and writing the story of what happened on the slopes that afternoon.
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| John Maclean's long career in journalism -- and his years as a reporter and editor with the Chicago Tribune -- gave him a good background for writing the true story of the South Canyon Fire. What it perhaps did not prepare him for was the fascination with fire -- what many firefighters consider nearly addictive -- that thousands of men and women share in the summer battles of the West. |
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Prineville Hotshots from Oregon unloading their crew bus in the meadow at Canyon Creek Estates just after noon on July 6, 1994. Photo by David Frey. |
| Prineville Hotshots in the meadow at Canyon Creek Estates, organizing their fireline packs in preparation for fighting the fire on Storm King Mountain. July 6, 1994 photo by David Frey. |
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One of the firefighters on the mountain stares as the fire blows up below him. Photo taken from the "photo point" on the mountain (see map illustration). |
| Photo of the blowup taken from the "photo point" on the mountain (see map illustration). |
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Photo of the blowup taken from the "photo point" on the mountain (see map illustration). |
| Storm King Mountain -- a few days after the blowup in July 1996. Photo by Jim Kautz, U.S. Forest Service. |
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Mann Gulch, 1949 -- the site of a blowup that killed firefighters in Montana nearly 50 years before the South Canyon Fire. Photo courtesy U.S. Forest Service. |
| Map image of Storm King Mountain at 4 pm on July 6, 1994. This image shows where the firefighters were on the mountain when the fire blew up. |
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Don Mackey, one of the smokejumpers killed on the fire. Mackey and other jumpers from Missoula were the first firefighters on the fire. Photo courtesy of the Mackey family. |
| Smokejumpers on the fatal fireline, surrounded by thick gambel oak and other fuels on the slope of Storm King Mountain. Photo by Tony Petrilli, U.S. Forest Service. |
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Approximately 4:15 pm on July 6, 1994. South Canyon Fire smoke plume viewed from Canyon Creek Estates. Photo by Wayne Williams, U.S. Forest Service. |
| Steep portion of the west flank fireline on Storm King Mountain after the fire. August 1994 photo by Dan Jackson. |
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Squirrel on Storm King Mountain killed while fleeing from the fire. July 1994 photo by Casey Cass. |
| Eric Hipke's camera and other gear. July 1994 photo by Jim Kautz. |
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The saddle - the top of the fatal line where Brad Haugh, Eric Hipke, and Kevin Erickson made it across. August 1994 photo by Dan Jackson. |
| Portion of the west flank fireline where 12 firefighters died. Cross of smokejumper Jim Thrash. August 1994 photo by Dan Jackson. |
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Don Mackey's mother plants tulips at the spot where Mackey died. Photo by Casey Cass. |
| Smokejumpers watch the blowup from the meadow at Canyon Creek Estates after 4 pm on July 6. Photo by David Frey. |
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