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Firefighters: They love the forest and struggle to protect them
By PETER H. KING
Associated Press Writer
• BIG SUR, Calif. (AP) -
Thousands of them have come
from almost every one of the 48
mainland states. They are the
• firefighters.
They range from swaggering
rookies lured by adventure to a
• hard-bitten veteran who grew
up in the Los Padres National
Forest, now ravaged by the two
week-old Marble-Cone fire.
• In their race against the 80,-
000-acre inferno, the fire
fighters share only two traits:
, they want to protect the forest
and they are tired, so tired.
R.A. Jones, 24, is an Arizona
• State University sociology ma
jor in his first season as a fire
fighter. He struts about the fire
line with a slug of chewing to-
*bacco lodged in his lower lip,
two canteens on his lowslung
belt and two bandanas sticking
•out of his silver helmet.
“I like going for it,” Jones
said. “That and the bucks. It’s
manly and it’s fun. People say,
• ‘Hey, wow, you’re a firefighter.’
That’s cool.”
Short, blond and bandy-leg
, ged, Jones speaks with awe of
flames shooting 200 feet into the
air and emitting a roar which
can be heard for eight miles.
• “At first it scared the hell out
of me,” he said between squirts
of tobacco. “But now I’m get
ting used to it."
• Wayne Mangum, a shy, 36-
year-old foreman, tells of his 18-
year career with the U.S. Forest
t Service while keeping an eye on
his young crew manning a fresh
fire line.
“When I first started, we ei-
• ther walked into them or rode a
horse,” said Mangum, who lives
in Alpine, Ariz.
Mangum’s wife and child
• know summer means Dad could
be gone for months at a time.
This year he’s already fought
, fires in five states.
“Some years I am gone a lot
and some years I’m not,” he
said with a slight twang. “When
•we leave we don’t know when
we’ll be back. It’s hard work,
but I enjoy it. I’ve always liked
the outdoors.” —
•
Tommy Tomlinson of
Cheweelah, Wash., is a “hot
'Shot,” one of the firefighting
elite who, unlike the khaki-trou
sered, yellow-shirted regulars,
dress with scruffy flair. They
* are the troubleshooters who ex
ecute special maneuvers in the
battles.
“We’re all crazy,” the 28-
* year-old Tomlinson said with a
devilish grin. A firefighter for
six years and a hotshot for two,
.he says he is happiest in the
midst of a big blaze like the one
near Big Sur.
“That’s where it’s at,” he
* said. “It’s an incredible rush. I
couldn’t work in an office.”
Tomlinson modestly said his
Job “is not really that dan
gerous. I don’t feel my life is in
danger at all. And it’s a good
feeling knowing you’re doing
* something good for the land.”
Fritz Cahill is the man re
porters turn to when questions
* crop up about the natural his
tory of the Los Padres Forest.
A big man in his mid-50s with
a weather-worn, friendly face,
* Cahill grew up in the Los Padr
es and can rattle off facts about
wildlife and vegetation in the
* vast wilderness.
Nyerere
ends visit
to South
ATLANTA (AP) — President
•Carter is serious about ending
colonialism and apartheid in
South Africa, but he needs the
help of Americans, said Tan
‘zanian President Julius K. Nye
rere.
Nyerere, who ended a visit to
, the Southeastern United States
Wednesday, told a news confer
ence that manufacturers who
invest in South Africa could un
•dermine Carter’s committment
to human rights in that country.
“They reap the benefits of ra
cialism and colonialism,” he
‘said.
Commenting on the appoint
ment of Andrew Young as U.S.
i Ambassador to the United Na
tions, Nyerere said: “We be
leive that for President Carter
to appoint a black man who be-
* lieves in human rights is more
than a symbol.”
During his visit, Nyerere vis
,ited power projects and agricul
tural experiment stations.
He knows, for example, that
in the 1940-41 rainy season, 161
inches fell on the coast ridge
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just a few miles west of the
Marble-Cone fire.
Cahill began as a temporary
firefighter in 1948. He is now a
Forest Service supervisor. “I
fought the last big fire here 27
years ago,” he said. “Spent 26
days on it.
Despite his experience with
Page 9
forests and fires, Cahill takes
the Marble-Cone fire as a per
sonal affront.
-Griffin Daily News Thursday, August 11,1977
“It sort of makes me cry
when I see it,” he said, looking
out over the smoke-shrouded
ridges and canyons of the Los
Padres forest. “That’s because
I was raised in it.”
