Hall of Flame
Museum of Firefighting
Wildland Firefighting
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| Wildland
firefighting has been neglected by American fire museums. The Smokejumper
Museum in Missoula, Montana, addresses the subject at any length, and it
is limited only to Smokejumpers, who represent an important but small
sector of the wildland firefighting community. The Fire Lookout
Museum inSpokane, Washington also presents a fascinating display of fire
lookout technology. But there was no attempt to display an exhibit
that addressed every aspect of the subject.
In August of 2003 the Hall of Flame opened a gallery to remedy this omission to the nation's firefighting history. It includes a replica of a 1930s era L-6 lookout cabin, several pieces of motorized wildland firefighting apparatus, and displays that tell the |
story of wildland firefighting -- the smokejumpers, hotshots, helitackcrews, engine crews, class II crews, air tankers, and lookouts who comprise the profession.Visitors use a twenty five page catalogue as they tour the gallery. It contains background information on each subject as well as captions for every photograph on display in the gallery. A television in the gallery shows several wildland firefighting related videos, and a computer runs an educational program introducing users to techniques of firefighting in the forests of Florida, the mountains of Montana, the prairies of Idaho, and the chaparral districts of Southern California. |
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Entrance to the Wildland Firefighting Gallery |
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Don Hale built this replica of an L-6 Forest Service Lookout from plans provided by Ray Kresek. To the right of the cabin is a panel displaying important wildfire fighting tools: chainsaw, drip can, bladders, a hose clamp, a rescue shelter, and a meal ready to eat (MRE) package. |
Behind the three rigs are panels which address the major branches of the wildland firefighting family - the smokejumpers, hotshots, engine crews, helitack crews and Type II crews |
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This 1921 American La France / Brockway "Torpedo" chemical car fought brush and structural fires in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. |
The Los Angeles Department of Forestry, later incorporated into the Los Angeles County Fire Department, designed and built this custom brush truck in 1930 on the chassis of a Moreland truck. The rig was donated to the museum in 1990 by Gene Autry. |
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The Volunteer Fire Department of Phoenix, Arizona purchased this 1908 chemical wagon from the Anderson Coupling Company of Kansas City, Missouri to fight brush and structural fires. |
At left is a manikin equipped as a member of the Payson, Arizona Hotshot crew. The manikin at the right is equipped with a smokejumper suit, helmet, packs and chutes donated by the Smokejumper Center of Missoula, Montana. Common wildland firefighting tools on the panel were donated by the California Department of Fire Protection. In the center is a deployed emergency shelter donated by Rural Metro Fire Department. |
| Right: A fully equipped smokejumper was donated by the Smokejumper Center of Missoula, Montana, through the courtesy of Smokejumper Wayne Williams. At he end of the gallery is a TV showing a selection of five wildland firefighting videos, and a computer running the educational software program "Living with Fire", produced by Florida State University. |  |
| Our primary consultant on the exhibit is Mr. Tom Story of
Tempe, Arizona. Tom is a professional wildland fire photo journalist with
an encyclopedic knowledge of the subject coupled with years of experience at
fire scenes throughout the western states.
Tom took almost all of the photographs that we used in the exhibit. Their high quality is enhanced by the detailed information that Tom, as a reporter, recorded for each one of his photographs. The museum's catalogue for the gallery identifies each of these photos using Tom's data. In addition to the photos, Tom also provided the staff with many pages of information about all phases of wildland firefighting, much of which has been incorporated into the Gallery Guide. |
Another
contributors to the project has been Ray Kresek, founder of the Fire Lookout
Museum in Spokane, Washington. Ray is a retired Spokane firefighter, but
has also had years of experience as a wildland firefighter.
The collection of wildland firefighting equipment which he has installed in the Fire Lookout Museum is the largest such exhibit in the United States. |
We are indebted to the following donors of artifacts to the exhibit
| The Payson, Arizona Hotshots | The Missoula, Montana Smokejumper Center |
| Nick's Boots of Spokane, Washington | Rural Metro Fire Department, Scottsdale, Arizona |
| The California Department of Fire Protection (Now called Cal Fire) | Mr. Tom Story |
The major published sources for the exhibit came from the writings of Dr. Stephen Pyne, Mr. Stan Cohen, Mr. Michael Thoele, and Mr. Ray Kresek.
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