As I write this in August 2010, the very active forest fire season on the west coast of North America has just resulted in the deaths of two pilots, in the crash of their water bomber in British Columbia. Another reminder that despite the technology, fire fighting continues to be a very dangerous job.
The photograph seen here shows the resources available to fight wildfires 55 years ago, and includes an early CJ-3B in use by a fire crew in Oregon in 1955. The picture is from the LIFE Photo archive at Life.com.
According to the archive, the photo was taken on 29 August, 1955
by J. R. Eyerman, on an assignment known as "Wood Essay: Oregon (Forests And Logging)." The exact location of the photo is not given, and I don't know when this photo essay may have been published.
The black & white version of the photo, which gives a good view of the Jeep, was found in the archive by Federico Cavedo. It shows a small wildfire underway in the background, and firefighters heading toward it in trucks and on horseback. A bulldozer and trencher are preparing to go into action, and a helicopter is helping to lay hose.
Helicopters had first been used in fighting wildfires in the U.S. in 1947, and although laying hose is maybe less exciting than rappelling fire crews, or water bombing, it is much appreciated by the crews on the ground.
The Jeep appears to be carrying the fire boss, with a radio and bullhorn. The identification on the Jeep's cowl is not readable in the photo, but is probably U.S. Forest Service or perhaps Oregon Dept. of Forestry.
I later found a full color exposure taken at about the same time as the black & white, probably with a different camera loaded with color film stock. In fact there is a series of exposures in both color and black & white, and what is interesting is that the action remains virtually frozen -- the scene is obviously being posed for the cameras. It seems likely that even the fire was set for the purpose of taking the photo, with a scenic peak (Mt. Jefferson?) in the background.
Some of the shots, including this one, include parachutes being dropped over the fire.
A wider view shows three additional cameramen, who perhaps were working with LIFE photographer J. R. Eyerman and taking some of the shots seen here, or perhaps for the Dept. of Forestry or some other client.
The helicopter pilot is doing a pretty good job of holding the same position, and the horses are doing a good job of ignoring the chopper.
One color transparency, scanned backwards in the LIFE archive and restored to original direction here, has suffered significant fading of the cyan (greenish blue) emulsion, suggesting it was taken on another different film stock and camera. Possibly by the fellow with his baseball cap on backwards (above), who seems to be at about this angle.
This shot captures not only a white parachute in the background, but also a fixed-wing aircraft circling above it. What are they dropping by parachute? Any other comments on the photo are also welcome.
Thanks to Federico Cavedo for spotting this photo. -- Derek Redmond
The LIFE photo archive of more than 10 million pictures is available free on Google for personal and research purposes, but copyright and ownership of all images remains with Time Inc. They appear among the results of any Google image search, or are available at Life.com.
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