National Park After Dark - Escaping the Flames: Idaho Panhandle National Forests

Episode Date: November 15, 2021

In the summer of 1910, the United States saw the worst fire in history. It burned over 3 million acres of the Rocky Mountain ranges and killed over 80 people. In this episode we follow Ed Pulaski, an assistant ranger for the U.S forest service, as he attempts to save his fellow firefighters when they get caught in the midst of the flames. He will go to any means necessary to get them out alive, even if that meant turning a gun on his own crew. For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Beam: 40% off the first three months of any product subscription, or 20% off a one-time beamorganics.com/npad You may pause or cancel anytime.BetterHelp: Take charge of your mental health. NPAD listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/NPADUncommon Goods: Out of the ordinary and truly original gifts. Code NPAD for 15% offFor a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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In the year 2020, 58,950 fires were recorded in the United States. These fires burned over 10 million acres and killed over 1,000 people. They raged through the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the desert hills of Utah, destroyed the homes of the people in Oregon, their smoke obstructed the views of Washington's magnificent peaks, and their flames ravaged the states of California and Alaska. Each summer we heed the warnings of the unsafe air quality and staying indoors. We watch as the air fills with smoke, sometimes even traveling thousands of miles away,

and obstructing the views in places like the Green Mountains of Vermont. While fire can be beneficial, cleaning the forest floors of debris and invasive plants, nourishing the soil, and bringing in the possibility of more sunlight to the vegetation, Like anything else, too much of something can be a bad thing. And in the summer of 1910, the country saw the worst fire in history. Flames covered over twice the size of the area of Yellowstone National Park. And during this time in history, our beloved wildland firefighters, hot-shot crews, and smoke jumpers weren't yet established. Ed Pulaski, an assistant ranger in the U.S. Forest Service, had the sole job to save

the towns of Idaho from complete annihilation, and he had almost no experience to do it. Welcome to National Park After Dark. A fire story. A fire story. We've never gone here before. We've never done this. In any story, I don't think. No, we haven't.

We haven't covered fire at all. And I have been just itching for a survival story. It's the end of fire season. You know, fires are finally starting to dwindle down. We saw another horrible fire season this year. There were tons of fires through California like there usually are. Oregon here in Vermont, part of why I added it into our intro is I actually saw the fires from out west in Vermont.

So we had another bad fire here and I just felt like fire story is kind of a good way to wrap it up and bring a little bit of light to what's going on at west. Awesome. I can't wait to hear it because I know that you have close ties to firefighting and a wildland setting with Al. Yeah, my partner has worked in wildland firefighting for over 10 years now. He's not doing it this year. He's kind of migrating to structure fire right now, but he has been in wildland fire.

And over the past few years, I've seen him go off into all different parts of the country to fight these crazy fires. And just it's a really dangerous job and it's pretty scary out there. And we're going to talk about a really scary fire that happened here. But before we do, we have some. Really, really exciting news. Big news. Huge news. Do you want to tell them?

Let the people know. We are doing a digital live event on December 9th at 730 with Moment House. So we are going to have our very own moment with them. Tickets are going on sale today. You can get them. We put a little link in our bio. But we're so excited because we have a very special episode planned that you will all get to watch live. and Danielle and I will be together for it.

The first time in National Park After Dark recording history that Cassie and I will be in the same room recording an episode. So not only is that going to be happening, we're going to be in Southern California. We will be fresh off a visit from Joshua Tree National Park and those are the stories that we are going to be covering for the live event.

So not only are we going to be together, it's going to be happening live. and Moment House has a very interactive platform. So not only can you choose to do meet and greets with Cassie and I, but you can also do chat functions with other attendees. So you guys can all hang out, talk to one another, get to know one another. It's going to be a really special event and one that Cassie and I have been really, really looking forward to. And we've been trying to keep our mouth shut for a little while about it.

But cats out of the bag. You can find the link to the tickets in our house. our episode description on all of our socials, and it is momenthouse.com slash NPAD. And again, it's December 9th, one day before my birthday. So come chill with us and wish me a happy birthday. It'll be the best birthday ever. I know. It really is. And come hang out with us. We are, like Daniel said, we're going to have meet and greet. So we're going to get to actually really talk to you guys. And we just have such a fun episode because we are going to be going to all of the places that we're talking about in this episode before we do it. So we're really,

really excited. Go check it out. We're going to be posting about it all the time. We're just so excited to be able to bring this all to you guys. So we will see you then. It's December 9th at 730 PM Pacific Standard Time. Yes. And oh, one other thing about it. We will be offering an exclusive merch design from Rayco designs who did our Crypto Campfire and Desert Skeleton designs that we love so, so much. And she is going to be doing an exclusive Joshua Tree-themed merch design for the show and for the show only. So you can grab that if you like, if you come to the show.

Okay, I want to hear a fire story. Yeah. Let's just go straight into our fire story. We're so stoked for everything going on right now. But we're doing a survival story today. And for this survival story, we're not going to a national park. We're going to a national forest. that actually is combined with three national forests.

So I want to tell you guys a little bit about that. We are going to be going to the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, and it consists of three of these national forests, the Knicksu, Keware, and the St. Joe National Forest. And this was all decided in 1973 that they were just going to combine them all. It consists of more than 2.5 million acres of public land, and it extends into Washington and a little bit into Montana. as well. There's huge mountains here. They range from 2,100 feet to 7,600 feet, and there's alpine lakes,

there's rivers, there's valleys, there's tons and tons of wildlife. There's white-tailed deer, elk, grizzlies, black bears, coyotes, otters, wolverines, and so much more. And this is also a great place to go hiking. There's extensive hiking trails here. There's tons of ATV trails, which I personally am a huge fan of because I ride dual sport motorcycles. So that's awesome to hear for me. There's cross-country skiing and snowmobiling in the winter. And another little fun fact of here, one of the areas in this national forest is known as Emerald Creek Garnet area, which has these gems that are known as star garnets where you can go and collect them. And they're the one of only one other place in the entire world that has them. So they have this forest that's specifically designated for people to

come and collect them in a safe and environmentally friendly way. Are they gems that you put in rings and necklaces and just jewelry, I'm assuming? Or are they just, you know, sometimes people collect gems and rocks just for like decoration? Is it that or are they made into jewelry? It's kind of both I saw it. It looks like people can collect them and kind of shine them up and turn them into jewelry. And then they can also just kind of collect the rocks themselves and put them into their own little. Like I have a rock collection at my house, so people do that kind of stuff. Interesting. I think it's also important to note that we're going all the way back to 1910. So times were so different in this area and in this national forest area. There was a lot of stuff going on because

settlers had really just started moving to the west over the past several years. They were building the railroad. Theater Roosevelt was the president a couple years before that, and he had really started this whole new chain of conservation ideas and efforts. He created the U.S. Forest Service in 1905. There were immigrants and immigration from all different countries in Europe, so there was people from Greece, there were people from Italy, Ireland, there was just this whole different slew of cultures that were gathering into the West at this point. This was also a time of segregation, too. So there was a lot going on with different cultures and people really at this time kind of hated each other between segregation going on. People hated Italian people for whatever reason.

They hated. Hey, I'm Italian. I have Italian rights too. I have Italian rights too. Hey. You're saying there's so many different, So we have the segregation, we have immigrants that are fighting amongst each other, and we have conflicts as far as natives and new settlers coming in and pushing into their land. So there's a lot of, it looks like, it seems like turmoil and clashing ideas, and it just seems like a very volatile time. Yeah, and that's a good point. There was a lot of native conflict going on during this time, because at this point in time, we were still very actively fighting and having battles with natives over land and trying to occupy their land. So this was, there was a lot of stuff going on. And I think

that this is important for the time period and for when this was happening because the Forest Service wasn't what it is today. And there's just a lot going on that I'm going to go into. Okay. The setting is set. So as I alluded to before, we are going to talk about the summer of 1910 that saw some of the worst fires in U.S. history. Over these few months, fires raged for months straight. While in this area back then, fires weren't unusual. I mean, there were hot summers, there were droughts in these huge vast areas. So it wasn't uncommon for fires to happen, but this summer had been especially relentless. There were smoked-filled regions throughout the entire west through Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Washington. There were forests

that were just burning. There were animals fleeing. And settlements in these areas were relatively new. They weren't used to all these fires. Natives were used to these fires and they knew what to do. But the settlers really had no idea the gravity of what could happen. Well, they've never lived in a landscape like that before. So at this point, the Forest Service had only been established for five years, and their structure was very primitive, and they didn't have wildland crews. They didn't have these big hotshot crews or smoke jumpers that would go out into these fires. Essentially, wildland firefighting was non-existent. And the U.S. Forest Service being so new, you would think this would be an exciting thing to start, and it was not. The U.S. Forest Service,

Service and their Rangers were by no means welcomed. They were actually very opposed. Theodore Roosevelt created this idea during his presidency, and he went down in history as being this very adored president who really fought for conservation and was responsible for establishing the Forest Service. He also was responsible for establishing 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, four national game preserves, and five national parks. So he had this very, very deep love for nature. And he did a lot with it. Damn. How long was he president? He was on a mission. How long was he president for? Do you know? He was elected for four terms. Okay. So it's not like he had four years to do this and he went just buck wild. I mean, thank you for setting aside public land. You know,

now, 100 something years later, we're very appreciative for that. But at the time, that seems like a lot. And it was. And people were on either side of this. So people either absolutely loved Theodore Roosevelt, which was why he kept getting elected, but there were a lot of people that were very against what he was doing. And many people thought that Roosevelt was taking away inhabitable, profitable land. And the land that was public for anyone's use, which is kind of ironic because they were also actively taking away all the land for the natives. I was going to say it's like, okay, so shoes on the other foot now, how does it feel? You know, it's like, yeah.

Okay, so, yeah, it seems a little strange. But it's funny how you don't notice that in the moment. You're like, yeah, but it's different. It's like, is it though? It's like, not really. Yeah, so basically he established this US Forest Service, but there were a lot of people who hated them. And there were even some people that were calling for Forest Rangers to be shot

if they were seen on their property or if they met up with them or anything like that because they were being described as these foul and useless people who were participating in stealing their land. Okay, so very extreme feelings going on. And there was even this instance in 1907 where a ranger was shot and killed by a hunter. When they confronted him asking like what happened, the hunter claimed that he thought it was a deer. And obviously the rangers were like, we don't believe you. I don't know how to articulate an eye roll, but that's what I'm doing right now. If you could hear an eye roll.

It's happening right now. Ew. That's not it. That ain't it. That's like your eye going back in your socket. Nope. Okay. Anyway.

I don't know what an eye roll makes. It's silent. It's not slurping. They're not falling out. I'm crying. Okay. You're right, you're right. So with, anyway, with all of this opposition for Roosevelt, there were also a lot of people who really agreed with him. So despite all the hatred for the U.S. Forest Service, there were a lot of people who ended up signing up to become Rangers,

and a lot of times this meant risking their life. So one of these Rangers who was out there risking his life was named Ed Pulaski. He was born on February 9th in 1866 in Green Springs, Ohio, but when he was a teenager, he decided that he was going to switch his life up and adventure out to the west. So he packed up all his belongings and he rode on horseback from Ohio all the way to Wallace, Idaho. During this, he was a 16-year-old boy, and he was riding through native territory that was under battle, and he was alone doing this. And he also was just kind of appreciating the land. He was sleeping under large prairie fields. He was living off of land during this trip. So he went out west with this really strong appreciation for nature. And when he first

arrived there, he kind of worked a variety of jobs. He first started off as a miner, which was huge. Mining and railroad working was why everyone went out there. It's how everyone was making money. Then he worked as a ranch foreman for a little bit. In 1908, he decided that he was going to join U.S. Forest Service. And he was a lot different than some of the other Rangers that he worked with because most of the other Rangers were young, and he was in his 40s when he started, and he worked with mainly college students. He himself had dropped out of high school, so he never went to college. He was older than them. Also, a lot of the guys that he worked with were like these single men doing whatever, and he was married. He was very happily married and had a wife,

and he always kept a little letter from his wife in his pocket. Oh, that's very nice. I think that kind of just shows the dedication at that point for wanting to really truly be there because he is so different compared to the majority of the people there at the time. And I think that just shows a bigger willingness to be there. There's a whole different life change, which kind of seems like it was a theme for Ed because he was working all these different jobs as a minor. Railroad worker worked on a ranch. You know, it kind of seemed like he was up for a challenge and switching up jobs and things like that. And as a ranger, at this time, his job duties included creating trails. He would hang telephone lines. He'd help build cabins. And then he would put out small forest fires, like very small forest fires. At this time, the tools that were used to put out fires were shovels and axes. And he never got any formal training in this. They kind of were just like, this is what you do. Go out there. Good luck kind of thing. There was no real organization to it. But at Plet, at Plano, Aski was really smart, especially in the outdoors. He knew about lots of different types of trees.

He knew how to identify them, how to use them, and he knew which ones weren't beneficial to cut down. He also knew environmental health properties to some of these things that would help with illnesses and things like that. So he was really smart and really well versed in the plant life that was in the area. And he was also really good at determining bad weather conditions and recognizing incoming storms before they came in. Wow. So he knew the medicinal properties of the vegetation around him, and he knew how to predict for poor weather. So he may not have had any formal training and firefighting, which is probably going to come into play here pretty soon, I'm guessing. But at least he has a little bit of knowledge to base his decisions off of. Yeah, you know,

based on the time period and the training available, he seems like he was probably, the best person to have out there. So by the time of the summer of 1910, Ed had been a ranger for two years, but his duties were really starting to wear on him this summer. That summer had constant fires that were keeping him busy with 14-hour days. He was starting to wonder how much more he could take a bit. Fire season that year had began very early. The wildfires started sparking up as early as April, and no one at this point had ever seen fires that early in the year before. A lot of these fires were being started by mine operators, coal-burning trains, and lightning storms, and it was constant. During the summer, it was green. There were lush green fields of, there were forests,

there were bright yellow flowers, and this year everything had turned to brown in really early months of June and July. And during these months of June and July, they hadn't even reached one-tenth of an inch of rain. So they were in a very severe drought. So obviously in Wallace, Idaho, fires had been on everybody's mind and people were getting really, really worried. And the U.S. forest supervisor, his name was William Weigel, was the one who had to answer to all of these questions. So he was getting a lot of questions like, what's going to happen if the forest burns? And is Wallace going to burn down? Fair questions. Yeah. And he was very frank with them. He flat out said, yeah, they're going to burn. And Wallace needs to be saved. Like it's not just the woods that are

going to go down, the town is coming to. And we really need help. At that point, they were really short-handed because people didn't like the Forest Service. A lot of people didn't want to sign up for it. A lot of people chalked it up to say, this is the Forest Service jobs. You don't need to recruit other people who are involved like you should be handling it. But the problem with this is that in this point of hatred towards the Forest Service, they were facing a lot more difficulties than just the people around them disliking them, people were actually trying to dismantle the organization. The government had recently passed a law saying that they didn't need to consistently pay Rangers and they would pay them for specific duties that were performed. And this was backing up pay a lot.

Some Rangers would go weeks or months without any pay, which was also very frustrating for them because rangers and people working within the U.S. Forest Service were getting offered more money than some other jobs that were going on. Kind of wild to think about, but back in 1910, most people were making about $13 a week. And they were offering these rangers and people in the U.S. Forest Service about $15 a week. So there's monetary incentive, but there's a lot of social, kind of like you'd maybe be a little bit of a social pariah. and as far as what you're saying, like if people truly do have that attitude, but it's confusing because you just said that most of the town people are like,

well, we'll be saved because the forest service is around, but at the same time, they're dissing them. No one wants to join. So it seems like a double-edged sword. Well, part of why nobody wanted to join, along with the hatred that was going on, where people were afraid. You know, people knew the dangers of,

coal mining or knew the dangers of railroad working at that time, but fires were this whole new thing that was happening for them and they didn't know what the dangers were. They didn't know what to do for them. So people were scared and they're like, that extra $2 a week is just not worth it. I can certainly see that for sure. And Bill Wigle held a town meeting with the town to tell them like, you know, this is a dire situation. I know you guys are scared, but we need to save the town. If you are well and able, please help out. But even after he had this whole meeting, not a single person came to help out. And because of this lack of help, Ed Pulaski was being pulled from fire to fire with the small crew that he had. And they were constantly moving to a new

one. So whenever one fire, whenever they put one fire out, another one started. So they were just going and going and going. And actually every single morning in July, that year. Ed Pulaski would wake up at 5 a.m. He would grab all his gear, his compass, shield, knife, food. He'd throw on these super tattered boots and he would head out with his civilian firefighters off into these smoking mountains. And this work was extremely exhausting. You know, they'd be on these dangerous cliffs and ridges, they'd be digging fire lines. Their only tools were shovel and an axe, which is very primitive in comparison to today's firefighting. and they were spending hours out here, coughing, smoky air, they were covered in dirt, dust, and sweat, so it was a really difficult job.

And then, after these several months of working day and night, 14-hour days, on July 26, 1910, the entire Rocky Mountain Range was hit with a lightning storm. Bolt after bolt lit up the sky, crashing into the summits of the tallest mountains. From an onlookers point of view, it looked like a shell of fireworks. The following morning, hundreds of new forest fires were reported to the supervisor Bill Ligel, and that was just in the Cordillane National Forest. There were 21 other national forests within the Rocky Mountains, and every single one of them was reporting fires. Oh, no, all from this one lightning storm. And Glacier National Park, that was on fire.

There were fires that were ranging on the Canadian border in Washington State, the Idaho Panhand National Forest, Lolo National Forests were on fire. Their fires were so huge that the smoke could be seen all the way in Missoula, Montana. And most of these areas were very remote. There weren't any roads to get to them. They were very inaccessible and hard to reach on horseback as well. So at this point, the western region of the country is in huge trouble. They have so many fires going on. They don't believe in the U.S. Forest Service and their rangers and firefighters. And now everything's up in flames. And they have no one to help. So of course, this Forest Service sends out an alert asking for the most experienced firemen to be sent out to these fires. From wherever they are, bring them out, we need them here. And then the following day, they sent out another alert. And they just said, get every single man out here to help. If you're able, get here, gather miners, soyers, loggers, go to hiring halls to find men. This is such a dire situation.

We don't care if they work in fire. We need them. We need horses. We need meals. And we need supplies. So just any able-bodied person pretty much at this point. That's so terrifying. Imagine.

And it was just like one day turnaround. It's like, okay, we need all the firefighters we can, like bring them over. And then it's like, oh shit, never mind. We need everyone. Everyone get out here now. This is something people had never seen before. The supervisor, Bill Wigle, put together his first set of orders. And he decided to implement an order of a full evacuation of the town from train.

He said, the smoke's coming in. if the fires get any closer to us, we need to prepare to evacuate from the train. So he was essentially like, we're going to ring this bell soon. When we do, get your stuff, get on the train. So with all of this going on in limited resources, firemen and everything, Ed Pulaski was designated as the person to be in charge of all of the fire crews. He was the only person who had enough knowledge that he would be able to designate a 200-person crew that the government had round up to fight the fire.

What a position. What an upgrade overnight. Yeah. Here you go. It's like you're promoted. Literally baptism by fire. Like sink or swim, go for it. It kind of reminds me, this is so off topic,

but it kind of reminds me of when I was my first day working as the vet tech and I went in. I didn't know the computer systems. I literally knew nothing of how to do anything. And I walk in the door and they're like, yeah, we're really short staff. today, so we're just going to go do your thing. Was it me? I'm like... No, no, no.

It was the manager at the time when I first was there. Whoops. You're like, that's something I would totally say. I know. But I, yes, yep. I mean, I feel like that's definitely anybody who's a veterinary technician or works in the veterinary field at all can definitely relate to that. But it is definitely a sink or swim.

It's like, well, hello and good luck. Let us know if you need anything, but don't. But also don't bother us because we're really busy. And that's how I feel like Ed Pulaski was probably failing during this. Meanwhile, 50 miles to the east in Taft, Idaho, which was known as a small lawless town, was seeing its very first sign of smokes as well. Taft, Idaho was an interesting place because it was filled with minors. railroad workers, but it was referred to as the wickedest city in America. And it was actually named

after the president, William Taft. This town had a higher murder rate than all of Chicago. Where is it? It's in Idaho, yeah. Damn. Or I should say. Was. Oh, okay. Oh, we'll get there. Okay, okay. But it was known for heavy drinking and brothels. And they decided, with all of this going on, the Lolo National Forest Supervisor actually went into. this town to search for more people to help the rangers out. So this town was full of drunks and criminals and they were like, you know, we're really desperate. Like anyone, anyone here want to come on board? Okay, so we've gone from firefighters to anyone to, I don't care if you're sober. Come on down. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, they really need people at this point. And on the first

week of August, they planned for 60 prisoners to be released and sent to the fire line. Okay, there's the next level. You don't have to be sober. You also don't have to be a free person. We're going to send you out here. And actually, I was reading a lot for the research for this episode. I read The Big Burn by Timothy Egan, who goes so in depth of this whole story. And I definitely recommend reading it because we just can't touch on everything he did.

But one of the things that he said in his book was that two of the prisoners, a murderer and a bank robber, were both stayed handcuffed for all of this while they released them. That seems unfair. Please go fight these fires, but we're going to keep you handcuffed just in case you try to escape. But like what would happen if there was an emergency and the fire closed in on them? Like a fire? Yeah, like a fire. And yeah, that's not, hopefully things turned out okay for them.

By August, the forest fires were running rampant, and there were over 2,000 fires that filled the Rocky Mountain Range. and this was from Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, into British Columbia. And then, on August 6, 1910, another lightning storm came barreling into the night sky. By morning, there were over 2,500 fires that were raging. And with this huge growth in fires, now, in comparison to the men they had to the fires, they could only realistically provide one man per fire to put it out. Which is obviously not feasible.

So are they going to now be just kind of focusing on the most severe fires? Yeah, so these odds are totally impossible. I mean, these crews have already been out there 10 days straight. Everyone's exhausted. What they need is more reinforcements. And on August 7th, President William Taft had finally decided that he was going to send in reinforcements. and he decided he was going to send in 2,500 military troops to fight the fires. And the government had decided that they were going to send in the 25th infantry from Spokane, Washington,

known as the Buffalo Soldiers. I didn't know the Buffalo soldiers were from Spokane. They were stationed there. Okay. Okay. I mean, I'm relatively new to Washington, but I feel like that's something I should have known. Okay. Very interesting.

Yeah, and if you're not familiar with the Buffalo soldiers, they were a group of soldiers that were comprised of all African Americans, mainly from the South. And this was a period during segregation, so they were put into their own segment of the military. And the Buffalo soldiers were often given the tasks of the government's dirty work. So they were being sent out to handle the conflicts that other parts of the military had created with battles, with natives, and they would be sent out after the fact. Like one example was they were sent to deal with the aftermath of wounded knee. They were also often called to handle civil unrest of the labor strikes that were happening all across the country at the time.

Then they also had another end of the spectrum of jobs as they were building roads and putting up telephone wires. So they kind of had this wide variety of jobs that they were performing. But one that I had no idea about was that the Buffalo soldiers were some of the very first rangers to patrol yellow. Stone and Yosemite long before they were national parks. Wow, I didn't know that either. That's really interesting. Yeah. Maybe we should look into them a little more and maybe do an episode on them because

even just those little tidbits of information is so interesting. I think that that would be an awesome episode to do. Noted. Moving on. Check. It's on our list. Oh, my gosh. I didn't know we were going to be introducing that phrase and this one because I'm like,

okay, it's a national forest. It's not a national park. you're not going to say it's on my list. Here we are. Anyway, the Buffalo soldiers were dispatched to Wallace, Missoula, the town of Avery, and just outside of Glacier National Park. And while dispatching them gave even more hands on these fires, they had never battled fires before and they were sent out to the fire lines to protect the towns.

So from what I've gathered over the last 20 minutes is no one knows how to fight a fire effectively. Short sentence of our whole introduction is no one knows what they're doing and the West is burning and everyone is freaking out. Okay. Good to know. It's okay.

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your favorite rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs.

You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders. That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear open that envelope. It's time for a little in-person spring treat.

It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. The sky above Wallace, Idaho had been black with smoke for weeks, but it was on August 19th, when the very first big ember came cannonballing out of the sky and hit the town. And a few hours later, another one came and torched an overhang inside the town, and the town people immediately put them out. But this was a really stark reminder that the fire was. coming and it was getting really close now. And this was enough for people to start taking it a lot more

seriously. And there were hundreds of people in the town that grabbed some of their belongings and they fled. They saw this and they're like, okay, it's time. It's time to leave. But even though there are people realizing that, there were a lot of people that still didn't care and weren't evacuating. At this point, Ed Pulaski had been up in the mountains for weeks now trying to combat these fires and he had dispatched his group of 200 men into two separate sections of two separate mountains. So they had two towns that they were trying to protect, and that was Wallace and Avery. They sent 150 men towards Wallace and 50 of the other men towards Avery. Now late in the afternoon on August 20th, supervisor Bill Wigle rode his horse up a ridge line

to get a better look at the escape route and form a plan for the incoming fire. After about three miles, he was stopped on the trail by a heavy timber that had been blown by the powerful winds from the fire across the trail. There was no way to get around it on horseback because there was a steep canyon there. So he decided to tie his horse to a tree and walk the rest of the way. And as he was walking, he was overcome by this dreadful feeling. If just wind could knock down that whole tree, what was going to happen when the fire actually came through? After two more miles of walking, he saw the fire firsthand and closer than he ever had before. There were huge towers of black, thick smoke that filled the air above the tree lines,

and then the towers would explode themselves, creating more fire and spitting it out above the treetops. What he was seeing is known as firewurls. These can reach over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit in their core, and they contract like a tornado vortex sucking in debris and creating. this intense, turbulent wind. And when Bill Ligel saw this, he realized immediately that the town of Wallace was in a lot of trouble. He turned around and ran back immediately to sound the evacuation alarm. He was running as quickly as he could down the dirt road, and he was breathing in this heavy smoke with every single step. About halfway down, he ran into a man who was

heading up the trail. He was out of breath and he was weak. Bill immediately recognized him as this man in the town named Speedy Swift, who lived in a homestead on the road that they were on. Speedy had been sick that day and gone into the town of Wallace to see a doctor, and he explained to Bill that his illness had made it hard for him to walk. He had been stopped on his horse by the same down trees that had stopped Bill before, and he was trying to walk home. Please help me, he pleaded to Bill. My wife and my baby are up there. How far is your home from here? he asked. Speedy then pointed up the mountains where the black thick of the smoke had already formed, and Bill realized that it was really possible that Speedy's family might have burned alive by now.

But he begged and he begged for Bill to help him. Finally, he agreed to try to help his family and he turned around quick and made a run for it, right towards those fiery tornadoes he had seen before. Bill believed that if he moved very quickly, he could make it back in time to order the evacuation. He made it to Speedy's ranch and immediately saw that his barn was completely charred. And then he heard voices of more than a dozen men. When he approached the house, he found firefighters inside and surrounding Speedy's home. They were dousing his home in water and they were doing this one to try and save his house from the fire that was coming,

but also to save themselves. Bill asked where Speedy's wife and baby were and they said that they were safe for now, but they were down by the river and covered in wet towels to try and save themselves from the fire. So Bill turned around and he quickly ran back and the smoke had now really come in and it was really thick. He felt disoriented and he felt dizzy from the lack of oxygen. And now it was completely dark outside. The wind was loud. There were popping sounds of fire explosions that filled the airs and flame engulfed the trees around him.

At one point his hand even caught on fire and scor. his skin. Then, a devastating sight. Down trees completely engulfed in flames laid across his only way out. The only option that he had left was to turn around and go back up the hill. Bill had remembered a small mining tunnel he had passed on his way from the homestead about half a mile away. If he could just get inside and take shelter, he might survive. He moved as quickly as he could, dodging falling trees and balls of flame landing around him. He finally made it to the mine. He climbed in as far as he could go and ducked his head down low to the ground and waited as the flames engulfed the world outside. And he was on fire. Or he had caught on fire. That's how close the fire was. Like it literally caught his hand. Oh my God.

Meanwhile, Ed Pulaski found his crew separated on the mountain sides and they were all panicking. The wind howling was so strong that it felt like it could easily pluck each one. of them off their horse and spit them out into the valley below. Any organization that was once had within these crews was completely gone now. Even their backup supplymen had bailed out and abandoned their mission to bring food and survival gear to the firefighters when the flames came closer. Now the firefighters were scattered across the ridge line, looking lost, and screaming for their lives. Ed Pulaski got to them as quickly as he could. Come on, come with me. He shouted through the bellowing winds and crackling tree branches. He rounded up about 50 of the men.

At first, the crew suggested that they take shelter in a nearby alpine lake. This was a lake that Ed Pulaski knew very well. He had named it himself after his daughter, Elsie. He didn't believe Elsie Lake would be a good option for them, though. He believed that they had the risk of drowning or getting injured just to find the lake now that it was dark outside. The crew was disoriented, terrifying, and, and muttering incoherently. Ed explained to them that they needed to collect themselves and to think.

If they could do that, they could make a run for it down to Wallace. After his supplymen had abandoned their mission, he knew he needed more reinforcements for the men to actually follow his orders. So he put his hand on his revolver and told the crew that anyone who disobeyed him would be met with his revolver and he would use it. So he has now resorted to threatening them to keep them alive. Even though some of them wanted to stay, they listened to Ed and they started to follow him towards Wallace. But the trees were buckling under the flames. Horses whinnied and reared and the hot fire singed their faces. One member of the crew was having difficulty keeping up. He was an older gentleman who was in no shape to run from this fire. And he begged.

Pulaski to stop. But if they stopped, that meant they would burn to death. I can't go any further. Go without me then. The man said to him, no, get up. Take my horse. Pulaski dismounted from his horse and helped the man up. Another man who could not take another step stopped. He called out to the crew members for someone to sit and wait for him, but no one agreed. The fire was coming. Moments later, The man started to burn. His hair and clothes engulfed in flames. He let out a murder's cry. And the crew ran even faster down the mountain.

And they listened to him burn to death. Oh, probably one of the worst things you could hear. And this just shows how close the fire is to them. Right. It's such split-second decisions that are having to be made. And it truly is life or daze. death at this point. There is no margin for error or time to think about it. Wow, that is, that's really, really intense. Pulaski and his crew hurried down a few more of the switchbacks

before they were met with a wall of fire. They were completely trapped now. Pulaski led them around the flames to an unburned forest, but more trees caught fire and fell. They were burning in front of them and they were burning behind them. He realized now, there was no, way that they were going to be able to make it back to Wallace. He only had moments to make a decision. Men crumpled to their knees, wailing and screaming, realizing their imminent death. A horse wailed and bucked as his tail caught on fire, and fire almost completely surrounded them.

A mine tunnel, he thought. Only half a mile from where they were there was an old mine tunnel. They might suffocate from the smoke inside of it, but they had a better chance of survival than they would hear where they were exposed to the flames. Besides, suffocating sounded a lot better than slowly burning to death, and they headed towards it. On their way to the mine, another man on the crew found a small mining tunnel, but not the one that he had been looking for. It was too shallow, and could not hold the 50 men or so that was there.

This won't work, Pulaski shouted over the wind. He scanned the area and finally found the one that he had been looking for. In here, everyone get inside the tunnel, he shouted. When some men were hesitant, he put his hand on the revolver and repeated his order. As they all got inside the mine, including two horses, there were shouting and crying. A fight ensued between two men and one began to strangle the other. It was complete chaos. The tunnel air was cold and wet, but in an instance was dry and hot.

The fire was sucking all of the air from the tunnel. There was no telling how long it would be before the fire took all of their oxygen. Pulaski took his shirt off and doused it in the puddles inside the mine. He tried to use it to put out the flames near the entrance. He used his hat as a bucket, picking up water and throwing it on the timber. He thought that if he could stop the fire from right outside of the entrance, it would help keep oxygen inside the mine.

It worked at first, but then his shirt caught on fire. Pulaski ordered every person to the back of the mine as far as they could go. He ordered them to lay on the ground and put their faces down. If they sat up, they would suffocate. They needed to find small air pockets if they were going to survive. One of their horses had already died and was lying in a puddle. The men were choking, coughing, and gagging. They were suffocating.

Some bodies were twitching and spitting mud out of their mouths. One man fainted and then another. One of the men on the crew couldn't take it anymore and he leaped up and headed towards the entrance of the cave. Pulaski, though, met him at the entrance and for the very first time drew out his gun and pointed it at the man. The next man who tries to leave this tunnel, I will shoot. Everyone knew that he meant it. Pulaski tried to douse the fires that were igniting on the timber holding the entrance cave. As he did so, his hands burned. A few moments later, his face caught on fire, and it was in his eyes. He grabbed his hat and scoop up.

water and poured it over his head. He then grabbed the last of the damp towels and put them over the wood holding the entrance to the cave. This was all too much for his body though. He could barely breathe and he was disoriented. He couldn't see and the fire had blinded him. He took a few steps back into the cave. Then he fainted and fell to the ground. Ready to soundtrack your summer? With Red Bull Summer All Day Play, you choose a playlist. that fits your summer vibe the best. Are you a festival fanatic, a deep end DJ, a road dog, or a trail mixer?

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had made a run for it towards the town of Avery. They had an evacuation plan to head to a homestead. if the fire came in quick, but they found that it may no longer be an option. The men ran into a nearby creek, lay in the shallow water, with wet clothes over their faces and waited. As the fire roared around them, trees began to crumble. One tree fell into the creek and onto one of the firefighters, killing him instantly. Another tree came barreling down, crushing and breaking the legs of another. The tree that landed on him was on fire, and he was trapped under its weight. He struggled, trying to pull his body out, and then he burned to death in front of his crew.

God, this is horrific. This is like a, I don't know exactly what movie I'm thinking of, but like the scene of what you're describing is very like apocalyptic in nature. Like everything's on fire, things are crashing down, people are running for their lives, people getting crushed and dying in front of one another, like, and it's real life, obviously, and it did happen, but that's just kind of what I'm envisioning right now, and it's really, really scary. It's a natural disaster. I mean, everything is crashing, burning, there's no escape routes. People are fighting for their lives. It's total chaos here. The town of Wallace that Bill Wigel had been trying to get to in order to sound the evacuation alarm had made that decision without him. The mayor of the town recognized the flames coming closer and made that decision. Everyone in the town grabbed an item or two and were rushing onto the trains, hoping that when they left on them, they would be heading somewhere that wasn't on fire.

Bill Wigle was still waiting inside the cave, barely able to breathe. The fire was sucking out all of his oxygen from the tunnel that he was in, and he needed to make a choice. Wait and suffocate in the cave, or take his chance with fire. He chose the latter. He drenched all of his clothes in the puddle that lay next to him, and then he took his wet hat and draped it over his face. He took a step outside. It was hot, and everything was on fire. He rubbed mud along his face and lips, which helped that part of his body.

not catch on fire. Everything else, however, did. His head, hands, back, and his neck were in flames. But his wet clothes helped protect him. He waited for the fire to burn past him before heading down to where he had left his horse. When he got there, his horse was dead. It was nothing but a charred corpse. He reached the town of Wallace at 2 a.m. It was still up in flames. There was crying and shouting, flung suitcases throughout the streets, people were on horseback trying to flee. Soldiers were still trying to evacuate people. He headed to the U.S. Forest Service building, which wasn't on fire. And he went inside to try to get communication with other services.

He got through to the other forest stations who reported all fire crews were missing. He reached out to headquarters in Missoula asking for more men and that they were all in very serious. trouble. When leaving the building, he came across a frantic firefighter. When speaking to him, he told him a story of hiding out in a cave with two horses and his crew. He told them, when the fire died down outside the entrance, he made a run for it. But everyone inside the tunnel was dead, including Ed Pulaski. I thought this was a survival story. Well, we're not done yet. Okay. And this is someone who... saying what they perceived is going on.

Okay. Their story. Okay. All right. Now the town of Wallace was going down in flames, and it was time to evacuate. The trains filled up, and people started to head out. Back in the tunnel, Ed Pulaski and his crew had been inside for five hours, and his men were just beginning to stir and move again.

Inside was filled with black smoke and carbon monoxide. They were convulsing and gaspins. for breath. It was about an hour before dawn when five of the men started heading outside of the cave, climbing over at Pulaski's dead body. Come on, guys. It's time to go. The boss is dead. A grumble came from the ground. The hell he is. Pulaski slowly started to stand, but he wobbled and struggled to get his footing. He was still blind in one eye. He dragged himself to the entrance and noticed the smoke, but no flames. Next, they did a head count. Five dead and two horses. Forty of the men had survived in the mine that night. Broken, tattered, the soles of their shoes completely burned off.

They headed back down the mountain and eventually made it back into town. They were all immediately sent to the town's hospital that had not burned. Pulaski was left with some eye damage, but was not permanently blind, along with some weakened lungs, but all in all, he was okay. Taft, Idaho, which we had talked about earlier as that lawless town filled with booze and prostitution, had mostly refused to evacuate. They would have rather sat around and drank their barrels of whiskey before leaving their town. So they did. It wasn't until they were pissed drunk and stumbling around when the fire finally entered the town.

And when it did, they all panicked. In a last minute effort, they evacuated, filling the trains with drooling and incoherent drunks. After that, the entire town was destroyed. Oh, so it's not somewhere you can visit? No, I guess it's just like an exit that you can get off of and it's just like nothing's there. Yeah, like the remnants of where it once was. Ah.

Yeah. I think there are some ruins that are still there of the town. Okay. In some of the reading that I was doing, they just didn't see the point. Like they already didn't, most of the people didn't like the town. They're like, it's just a bunch of brothels and drunk people. Like, why are we going to rebuild this? Yeah, kind of just cut their losses and moved on.

Yeah. So overall, the fire killed 87 people, most of who were firefighters. It destroyed entire towns and manmade structures, and it burned over 3 million acres of forest. And it is believed to be the largest wildfire in United States history. That night, Ed Pulaski, because of his efforts in what he did, saved 40 of the 45 men that entered with him in the mine that night. After the devastation of this fire, people began to re-examine the U.S. Forest Service

and what their role should really be. Some people blame the forest fires on the Forest Service and claim that if they had allowed the National Forest for logging and mining, there would have never been anything to burn. Others, including Theodore Roosevelt, saw this as an imperative time to fund and source the U.S. Forest Service, to prevent devastating disasters like this one from ever happening again. This fire finally led to the support of the New Forest Service.

It was directly related to solidifying support, funding, and a fire management mission. However, this also led to a big misdirect in managing fires and unknowingly set up the future for more fires. For years, they implemented vigorous fire suppression, which meant extinguishing every single fire at all costs. Even in 1935, they mandated a 10 a.m. rule, where any fire that was spotted must be extinguished by 10 a.m. the following day. And this did seem to be effective, as there were no big fires like that of the big burn of 1910, but it was causing other issues. No fires meant more dried out dead wood, denser and less diverse forests, and it created an environment that would surely burn again. Today, approaching the issue of fire is combined with trying to prevent them, along with

preventative acts such as controlled burns. Communities have become more involved in preventing forest fires, and courses in fire science are educating people in conditions and behaviors of fires to become more prepared to be able to predict them better. We also have established crews such as wildland firefighters, hot shot crews, smoke jumping crews that go out every single year to battle these fires, and we now have a real organization who are trained and working to manage these fires. And today, one of the most recognizable advertising symbols is Smokey the Bear. So we continue to have an active role and relationship with fire. As far as the tunnel goes, that Ed Pulaski and his crew took shelter in,

it is accessible to visit for yourself. The Pulaski Tunnel, according to the All Trails app, is a four-mile, heavily trafficked out-and-back trail located near Wallace, Idaho. It features a waterfall and is rated as moderate. The trail takes you along the same route that Pulaski and his crew took during the forest fire and has interpretive signs along the way. Now you're not able to go inside of the tunnel because it has been barred off from visitors for safety reasons, but you can go all the way to the entrance of it and see exactly where they were. Wow, that's awesome. What a cool hike. Yeah. Hikes that have history to them and that you know that you're walking the same path as the people did, you know, back then in such a huge historical event. It just makes it more

special. And I think that that is just, what a story. Also, in honor of Ed Pulaski, there is a tool name the Pulaski that is used in wildland firefighting and firefighting today. It is a tool that is, it's like a vertical axe and a horizontal axe on opposite sides of each other that are meant for digging and for cutting down trees that Ed Pulaski helped kind of reinvent, but it is named after him and it is very, very widely used in the wildland world now. So I think it's a story that's really widely known for all firefighters. You know, everyone knows who Ed Pulaski is because of the Pulaski tool. Well, I didn't know.

And now I'm grateful that I do. That was a very intense story. And it had... It was really sad. It had high notes, especially at the end with the people he was able to save. But just the vast devastation that you described is like... It's almost incomprehensible with how large of an area that is, how many people were affected.

wildlife was affected. I mean, I can't even imagine. You really do have to be really careful while you're out there, especially if you're in these Western states, because there are fires that are causing these huge, huge devastations. I mean, we saw that one in California that was started by a baby shower. The gender reveal party. Yes.

Yeah. Like, if there's a fire ban, it's there for a reason. Please don't spark a fire when you're camping if you're in an area. that has a ban in effect. Yeah, I mean, how horrible would it be that you wanted to have a campfire and then you burn someone's house down? Right. You know, it's just like part of this book, which I didn't add it into the story because

I thought it was really sad and gruesome. They described baby black bears that were up in the trees that were screaming for their lives that were burning and they burned on, they burned alive. And that's really the kind of stuff that's. happening when these wildfires are happening. So just be really, really conscious about what you're doing while you're out there during fire season. And I know a lot of people are affected this year from fires. So just be conscious of that. And even not just the fires themselves, but the people that are being sent out there. I mean, our wildland firefighters are risking their lives every single time

that they go out there. And yes, it's their job. But also, if you're starting these massive fires, you're putting their lives at risk and it's very dangerous so we have to think about them too. Yes. Obviously it goes without saying but we'll say it anyway. Thank you to everybody, Al included, everyone who commits their life to firefighting in any capacity, whether it's structural fires, wildland firefighting, any emergency service personnel, like we literally have you to thank for our lives at times and you keep us safe and keep wildland. and safe and it's a very important. And sometimes thankless job, as we learned, especially historically speaking, which I was shocked about. I had no idea that the Forest Service was looked at like that

at one time. It's hard to think about because we love our Forest Service. You know, we love our Rangers and everything. And it's hard to picture that people didn't feel the same way, but it did it happen. So if you're out this week, if you know a wildland firefighter or a regular firefighter, a ranger, forest service, anyone. Give them a big thank you. They're out there protecting our planet, our people, and we all really appreciate you guys. Well, thank you so much for sharing that story. It was an intense one, but it does feel good to be back from spooky season and back into our regularly scheduled programs. I missed my survival stories. That's sure. You're like, I have so many planned once we get through October. And I will say we looked forward to October.

and we love a good haunting story clearly or cryptid story, obviously. But we started this podcast for a reason, and it was for survival stories and at times grew some stories. So I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did because I learned a lot and I have a bigger appreciation for just how significant wildfires can be and how serious they are. So be safe out there, everybody. Be respectful of our fires. make sure you're respectful of our firebans. And yeah, that's everything for today. Grab your ticket. Grab your ticket for our live event on December 9th.

Momenthouse.com slash NPAD. Look in the episode description on our socials and on our website. Please and thank you. Because we're having a live show. Woo, woo, woo. I am so excited. I can't believe it's coming. Oh my God, I'm freaking out.

People are going to see me. People don't even know what I look like. I know. We're going to be on camera. It's not just like in our pajamas in our offices. I know. Well, we're stoked either way. In the meantime, enjoy the view.

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