Summer of Fire Part 39

"Nearly a million just in Yellowstone," Steve said to Clare. "Last month when I said I'd want to stay if a million acres burned, I never thought it could happen." He drank champagne again.

"d.a.m.n, it's cold," said a woman whose nose had gone cherry red. She rubbed her hands together and stuck them under her arms.

"You think this is something?" a man in a woolen cap shouted. "Have you heard tomorrow's forecast?" He twisted the dial of a portable radio and the tinny strains of "Let it Snow" encouraged another round of cheering.

Not far from the crowd, a group of elk lay blissfully undisturbed by the revelry.

Steve started to raise the bottle again. Someone took it from his hand. "Moru," he said.

Moru pa.s.sed the champagne without drinking. "I called Nyeri in Bozeman. They're going to stay the night and drive back with Devon tomorrow."

"Good idea," Clare agreed. The night stretched before her, the time with Steve an impossible luxury.

He pulled her tighter against his side and murmured for her ears only. "This evening, madam, the chef will prepare his special spaghetti sauce, with fennel, basil, and plenty of garlic. Guaranteed to give Technicolor dreams."

Clare didn't plan on dreams anymore, unless they were the good kind. She pressed closer to Steve. "On the other hand, we may not get much sleep."

EPILOGUE.

September 11.

Steve had always thought the section of the Grand Loop Road between Canyon and Norris to be the park's most monotonous corridor of pine.

Today, it was transformed, as broad vistas heretofore unseen opened before his eyes. At the high point of the Solfatera Plateau, he could see out over the long burned slope to Nez Perce Creek.

"We need to talk," he told Clare, who rode beside him in the Park Service truck.

"I know." She spoke so softly that Steve silenced the radio playing "Frosty the Snowman."

It was chilly in the cab, but although his fingers hovered close to the lever, Steve did not put on the heat. After suffering through the summer, he was quite willing to taste the bracing bite of cooler air. "I'm not sure where to begin," he said.

All at once, he couldn't stand that he had to hold the wheel and keep his eyes on the road. Not while Clare was beside him and there were things he desperately needed to tell her.

"I know Moru said Nyeri will be bringing Devon down this afternoon, but they should be a while on the road." He slowed and pulled into an overlook on the left. Here the Wolf Lake arm of the North Fork had wreaked havoc. In an area where a rare tornado-like wind had created a blowdown years ago, fire had swept through the deadwood and left a veritable moonscape.

This was one of the worst looking burns, right beside a major road. The news had featured a reporter on this spot telling the nation in grave tones, "Tonight, this is all that is left of Yellowstone National Park."

What colossal bulls.h.i.+t! Even inside the outlines of the burns, there were broad areas where damage had not been severe.

As Steve drew the truck to a halt, Clare put her hand over his. He killed the engine and turned into her arms. He wanted to drag her into the woods, but only flattened tree trunks surrounded them. With an effort, he broke the embrace and said hoa.r.s.ely, "We're not talking." He was determined to ask her, against all odds, if she would come and live with him in Yellowstone.

Outside, a huge snowflake drifted down and landed on the winds.h.i.+eld. It slid sideways as it melted into a great water drop that sluiced down the gla.s.s. Another flake whirled past, and another.

Clare opened the door and jumped down with childlike alacrity. "They weren't kidding about the forecast!"

Steve followed her into what rapidly became a fast-falling whirl. She leaped tree trunks in the downed forest, hurrying to the top of a rise and spreading her arms wide. By the time he caught up with her, her sweetly ragged hair was starred with white.

"This will go a long way toward bringing the dragon to its knees," Steve said.

"Look at that." She pointed.

Embers still smouldered in the heart of a log nearly three feet in diameter, while a sugary dusting frosted the exterior. "It's not over by a long shot," she said. "These fires will burn on and the mopping up will take months."

Steve nodded. "Twenty years from now people will still be questioning whether 'let-burn' was a disaster, or if a hundred years of playing Smoky Bear set the stage for an inferno."

Clare s.h.i.+vered in the swirling white wind. Steve must have noticed, for he reached his arm around her and drew her under the shelter of his jacket. The way he wordlessly knew what she wanted gave her chest an aching feeling.

They had made love, but neither had spoken of the future.

How many times had she been set in her ways, only to have change upset her delicate balance? For a time Jay Chance had been solid earth. His leaving had produced a pattern of shattered fault lines. Walled alone behind defenses, she'd guarded her heart until the man beside her had broken through.

Clare swallowed her fears and leaned on Steve. "I don't want to leave."

"It gets to you, doesn't it?" He waved his free hand at the slopes and mountains out there somewhere in the driving snow. "Even burned, I wouldn't trade this place for blue water and white sand."

She knew how he felt even as she planned her own return. The barren expanse of ash-covered earth was not without its own ethereal sort of beauty. "It casts a spell. You want to come back, and you haven't left yet, but . . . " she tightened her arm around him, "I wasn't talking about missing a place."

"I was hoping you'd say that." He pulled her to the nearest snow-dusted log and sat down facing her, both her hands in his. "I don't want this to be the end."

She met his eyes and took a steadying breath. "I don't either." The loving look in his eyes made it easy to tell him. "I'm planning on either moving to Boise to work with Garrett, or applying to take over the Fire Cache at Mammoth when Ben Mallory retires this winter."

Her cold hands felt him grip harder. She marveled that his were warm. "G.o.d, Clare, I do want you with me. That's what I stopped here to tell you . . . " A shadow crossed his face. "But there's something else. When you leave, I'm afraid I might start drinking again."

Her heart sank as she grappled with his words. His problem was very real, but as she gazed into his gray eyes, she knew she'd love him in bad times, too.

"I've decided to tell Shad Dugan that I'll go for treatment. I never used to drink before Susan and Christa died. I'm serious about staying off the booze. "

They were both getting soaked by the early season snow, but she dared not move for fear of breaking the surreal isolation created by opaque light. In this private world, she could believe that Steve's determination could defeat any adversary.

"You can do it," she told him.

"I will do it . . . for me." He bent and pressed a warm kiss to her chilled cheek. "And for us."

Not since she was young and Jay had declared himself had she known a surge of joy like this one. In the lost and lonely years between, she'd begun to believe that promise was for others.

"I've got a confession to make," Steve went on. "When you asked if there was anyone in my life and I said no, I didn't exactly tell the truth."

She waited.

"Ever since the crash in July when I fought my way through that freezing lake . . . realizing with every stroke that even though I'd been dead inside for years . . . I did want to live . . . ever since I dragged myself onto that sh.o.r.e . . . from the moment I opened my eyes, there's been you."

The snow that was ending the summer of fire blurred through her tears, as Clare permitted herself to imagine. Over the years, the burns would fill in, first with brilliant pink fireweed and later with seedling pine. Colorful aspen that had not had a niche in the mature forest would bring gold to autumn. Elk would browse the burned land and carry on the cycle of life.

Clare had planned to grow old with Jay, but along the way, they'd let the distractions of daily life overshadow their belief in each other. Steve and Susan had charted their future in the stars, but their flight had fallen to earth.

They were no different from all the rest . . . those who dared to dream as though they didn't realize that only this moment is given. Frank, Billy Jakes, all of them, riding a knife-thin edge of present. Only this instant, when the sun s.h.i.+ning through a snowstorm stabbed at Clare's eyes and the cold, cutting wind told her that her tears were real. She blinked to clear the blurred image of a world gone charred black and whirling white.

Letting go her hands, Steve bent and brushed away granules of snow blown into the hollow at the base of a log. "Look," he said softly.

Together, they knelt to discover a single, pale-green shoot, pus.h.i.+ng through the layer of ash.

YELLOWSTONE FIRES.

September 26, 8:00 a.m.

Here is a list of the fires and approximate perimeter acreages. To date, over 1.1 million acres in Yellowstone National Park (includes NF portions of Clover-Mist and North Fork Fires) and approximately 1.6 million acres in the Greater Yellowstone Area have been affected by fire. However, only about half of the vegetation has burned within many fire perimeters. Throughout the summer, 52 different fires have been started by lightning. Of those 52, eight are still burning inside the park. Fire fighters are working to control them. Any new fires will be suppressed as quickly as possible.

Clover-Mist Fire: 412,550 acres. Mist Fire started July 9. Clover started July 11. They joined on July 22. Shallow Fire started July 31. Fern Fire started August 5. These two fires joined Clover-Mist August 13. Lovely Fire started July 11 and burned into Clover-Mist on August 21. Estimated 83% contained. The fire crossed the Montana border near Kersey Lake. Growth was about 1,050 acres over the weekend. Acreage reduction is due to remapping. 1120 firefighters, 31 engines, 2 bulldozers, and 9 helicopters.

Fan Fire: 23,325 acres. Started June 25. No change. The fire was contained on 9/2. One crew is completing mop-up.

h.e.l.lroaring Fire: 83,888 acres. Started August 15. The fire is 100% contained. Mop-up and rehabilitation work continue.

Huck/Mink Complex: 225,500 acres (includes Mink Creek Fire acreage in Bridger-Teton NF). Started August 20. Caused the evacuation of Flagg Ranch. The fire was 100% contained on 9/15. No estimated date of control. Mop-up and rehabilitation work continues.

North Fork: 400,100 acres. Started July 22 by human. Split from Wolf Lake Fire at Gibbon Falls. This fire is about 50% contained with 100% containment expected by mid-October. Some increase in fire activity is expected due to dry, windy weather. Mop-up and structure protection is continuing at Old Faithful and West Yellowstone. 1339 firefighters, 8 bulldozers, and 4 helicopters.

Snake River Complex: 224,000 acres. Red Fire started July 1. Shoshone Fire started June 23. Joined August 10. Falls Fire started July 12. Red-Shoshone joined the Mink Fire on August 31. Acreage includes Continental-Ridge and Mink Creek fires. The fire was declared 100% contained on 9/19 at 1700 hours. Mop-up operations and rehabilitation work continues. Fuel modification in Lake area continues as well. 459 firefighters, 1 engine, 1 helicopter.

Storm Creek Fire: 107,847 acres. Started July 3. This fire was declared 100% contained on 9/17. Mop-up operations continue in the Soda b.u.t.te and Pebble Ck. areas.

Wolf Lake Fire (includes Mammoth Complex): 107,460 acres. Fire grew only twenty acres over the weekend despite dry weather and high winds. Most military crews are leaving by 9/28, and they will not be replaced. Estimated date of containment still depends on receiving additional precipitation. 1099 firefighters, 12 engines, 9 helicopters.

Crews on many of the fires continue to demobilize. Unified Area Command operations in West Yellowstone have been shut down. As a result, accurate information on crew sizes and resources for some of the fires was not readily available.

AFTERWORD.

Donald Hodel, the real Interior Secretary of the United States under President Ronald Reagn, sent the following letter to newspapers across the country on October 13, 1988. It was also printed in 1989 in The Fires of '88, Yellowstone Park and Montana in Flames by Ross Simpson.

To the Editor:.

This summer long will be remembered for the forest fires that raged over much of the public lands in the West. Before the season is behind us, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks for the heroic efforts of the over thirty thousand firefighters from across the country who, over the course of the past several months, risked their lives to try and control a natural disaster of unprecedented proportions. Whether called by a personal sense of duty or summoned by obligation, these men and women - working against insurmountable odds - showed exceptional courage and patriotism.

Many firefighters worked twelve to fourteen hour s.h.i.+fts, with days consisting of hot, exhausting work battling fires, and nights spent in sleeping bags. In addition to facing the danger of intense blazes, falling limbs and oppressive smoke, they coped with everything from rockslides to angry yellow jackets. At the end of a workday, many firefighters carrying heavy gear hiked as much as ten miles before being picked up and returned to their camp.

Modern day forest managers and park rangers never have faced the conditions experienced this year in which millions of acres of aged timberlands were parched by four or five years of severe drought. Substantial portions of these great forests were living on borrowed time. Therefore, despite all efforts, it was impossible to control the course of natural events.

We would be remiss if we did not learn from this experience. Now we begin the painstaking study to determine what, if anything, can be done to insure that we will not face devastating fires of this kind in the future. Work must also be done to help the rehabilitation of Yellowstone National Park and other affected areas.

Fortunately, much of Yellowstone escaped the raging fires-and, surprisingly, many acres of lush forestlands within burned areas were left unscathed. We are antic.i.p.ating a great influx of tourists interested in seeing the extent of the damage and the progress of regrowth. Recreational opportunities will continue to abound.

Yellowstone will not be the same within our generation, but nature recovers from these events by rebirth of the old growth forests and rejuvenation of forage and wildlife. It would be foolish to say that the Yellowstone National Park forest fires were welcomed - but over the course of the next decade, we may witness some beneficial events.

This fact does not offer much solace for the local economies that have been disrupted, people displaced and painful losses suffered. And those of us who love Yellowstone cannot help but view the events as a natural tragedy. But the losses would have been much greater had it not been for the dedication and perseverance of the brave firefighters - and all who supported them in this difficult time. Again, to them, our thanks for doing an outstanding job.

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

As the twentieth anniversary of the 1988 fire season approaches, it remains one of the milestone events in the history of man's summer battles against nature. The firefighting effort was, at the time, the most expensive event in fire suppression, over $120,000,000. Estimates suggest that from 25,000 to 32,000 firefighters fought on the lines, with up to 9000 active at one time: career professional fire experts, smokejumpers, pilots, seasonal groundpounders, college students, convicts, and the armed forces. In 1988 in the United States, 68,396 wildfires burned 3,799,550 acres - almost half that was accounted for by the Greater Yellowstone area.

Fire is a natural part of the forest ecosystem. Many plant species rely on fire for regeneration. Lodgepole pines (nearly 80% of the park's forests,) have cones that are sealed by resin until the fire's heat dries and explodes them, releasing the seeds. Brushy plants such as sage, aspen and willows, along with gra.s.ses will burn, but their root systems usually remain, and the years following a fire can be a very productive time. As the natural order proceeded, every few hundred years flames swept over the mountains and valleys. Research in Yellowstone has indicated that large fires occurred during the 1700's.

Once the park was established in 1872, and more people came to Yellowstone, they brought a belief that fire was destructive. Thus, in the latter part of the nineteenth century began the Smokey Bear trend, with the military custodians of the park fighting wildfires. From the 1940s through the 1960s, some began to recognize fire's positive role, and experimentation with controlled burns began. In 1972, it was determined that natural fires caused by lightning in the National Park would not be fought.

Though Yellowstone's forests were "old growth," up to 300 years, with abundant deadfall from the ravages of the pine bark beetle, the years leading up to 1988 did not foreshadow the magnitude of the event. Since 1972, in sixteen years, 235 fires had burned only about 34,000 acres. The years 19821987 were wetter than normal, and in the winter of 19871988, there was adequate snowfall. April and May rainfalls were abundant, leading to a feeling that the fire season might be a nonevent.

But as summer began, the park experienced a drought along with high daytime temperatures, low humidity, and strong, gusty winds. These conditions caused fires to grow and burn so actively that it was impossible to contain such conflagrations. In the time from late June through July, the driest in recorded history, over twice the acreage burned as had in the previous sixteen years under the "let-burn" policy.

In late July, the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service formed the Greater Yellowstone Unified Area Command, the special fire organization described in this book. Throughout the summer, it tracked 248 fires in Greater Yellowstone. Within Yellowstone, lightning ignited 51 different fires, while one of the largest and most destructive, the North Fork, was reportedly started by a thrown cigarette. The Unified Area Command, in response to the demand for information, began issuing fire maps and statistics that came out on a daily basis.

The following shows the number of acres consumed in the Greater Yellowstone Area along with key events experienced by the characters in Summer of Fire.

July 15 8,500 acres.

July 25 75,000 acres Battle for Grant Village.

August 4 150,000 acres.

August 20 350,000 acres "Black Sat.u.r.day"

September 7 1,000,000 acres Siege of Old Faithful.

September 9 1,200,000 acres Defense of Mammoth September 26 1,600,000 acres Final report.

On July 25, 500 firefighters defended the Grant Village lodge, restaurant and campground. By August 4, large back-country fires spread in the northwest and northeast quadrants of the park. Fire behavior scientists made a prediction, considered dire at the time, that the 150,000 thousand acres burned might double before season's end.

But August 20, or "Black Sat.u.r.day" saw a record burning of another 150,000 acres in a single twenty-four hour period, while firefighters sought shelter and aircraft were grounded. The day hosted a dry front, a wind event that caused the fires to crown and run at unprecedented speeds. The report from fire command at 8:00 a.m. on August 22 revealed that fire trucks and crews were protecting Yellowstone's northeastern gateway towns of Silver Gate and Cooke City.

In early September, the town of West Yellowstone struggled with the decision whether or not to evacuate. By now, Park Service and Forest Service officials were under attack by angry residents who in some cases believed the government would be happy if they were burned out of their homes. Tempers ran high, and one of the local motel marquees invited folks to a "Bar-bee-que," referring to Bob Barbee, the Superintendent of Yellowstone. Locals set up the sprinkler barrier along the abandoned Union Pacific railroad right of way in case the North Fork fire came to town.

The September 7, 8:00 a.m. fire command report told of "fire spotting to within 3/4 mile of Old Faithful Inn," and the evacuation. The sprinklers were moved in from West Yellowstone and installed under power lines at Old Faithful. Then 1608 firefighters, 39 engines, 22 bulldozers, and 6 helicopters defended the complex. All non-essential fire personnel and area residents also evacuated from Silver Gate and Cooke City.