Copyright 2006 Oroville Mercury Register
All Rights Reserved
BY PAULA M. FELIPE
Oroville Mercury Register (California)
After 39 fire seasons, Division Chief Brooks Henderson is retiring from the U.S. Forest Service.
His 57th birthday is this month, which also means mandatory retirement.
Brooks grew up in Shasta Lake City, north of Redding. During his senior year in high school, he took a forestry class where he submitted a job application to the Forest Service as part of his senior project. He was hired as firefighter in the Six Rivers National Forest.
“I enjoyed the camaraderie with the other firefighters and being outdoors,” he said.
Brooks’ first major fire was in the San Bernardino National Forest where he spent two weeks.
“We had a 20-person crew and became trapped by the fire. We took refuge in a safety zone that was a cleared area of about 50-60 yards and had been built by a dozer,” he said. “The fire went around us. We didn’t have fire shelters or nomex clothing in those days. I’ve been a great fan of dozers ever since,” he said smiling.
The next summer, 19-year-old Brooks attended smokejumpers school in Redding.
Smokejumpers are firefighters who jump out of an aircraft and land in a remote area as close to the fire as possible.
Six out of the seven practice jumps are over an open field where the smokejumpers land upon a giant X. The seventh practice jump is called a “timber jump.”
“That is when a smokejumper intentionally jumps out over forest land with the intention of getting hung up on a tree, so we can practice rappelling down the tree,” he said.
“That was exciting and scary,” he said. “You could get washed out of the program if you didn’t do the jump good enough.”
Brooks was told a parachute malfunction was rare, so he was surprised when firefighters who jumped before and after him both had parachute problems.
“No one was seriously hurt. One suffered a sprained ankle. They had ‘line-overs’ where their lines had crossed over their chute,” he said.
Brooks made his first jump safely to the ground from a DC-3 with 16 people.
“We jumped at 1,500 feet into a big rancher’s field east of Redding,” he said. “It’s pretty safe. There are no big rocks or trees on your first six practice jumps.”
The first thing he noticed after jumping was how quiet it was.
“And, you feel no sensation of falling. You feel suspended in the air, but don’t sense you are falling until you get closer to the ground and begin seeing people and vehicles become bigger and bigger,” Brooks said.
Brooks was hooked. “I wanted to do it again,” he said. “It’s so thrilling, I wanted to keep doing it.”
The landing zones for the practice jumps got increasingly smaller, and the day for the “timber jump” arrived.
Brooks carried about 100 to 150 feet of rope, but in some regions with big trees like redwoods or Douglas firs, smokejumpers carry about 250 feet of rope.
“Smokejumpers wear protective gear like a motorcycle helmet, steel mesh face guard, and a thick, padded Kevlar suit,” he said.
Once safely on the ground, smokejumpers begin to work. Their tools and equipment are dropped, so they can conduct “snag falling,” which is cross cutting burning trees.
When Brooks attended Shasta College, he met his wife, Nadene. They have been married for 34 years and have two adult children, Matthew and Melody.
“This is a demanding career and you are traveling a lot. My family has been very supportive,” he said.
Nadene is a full-time registered nurse, who works as a public health nurse in Butte County and a home health nurse for a hospital in Marysville as well as for a walk-in clinic.
Brooks enjoys being outdoors and has taken his family on hunting, fishing, and camping trips. He also enjoys spending time with the family’s two Airedale terriers.
Brooks now looks forward to spending more time with his family and traveling during his retirement.
Among Brooks’ many fire campaigns were wildfires started by lightning strikes in Alaska. He jumped on fires primarily in national forests and some state lands for mutual aid for the six years he was a smokejumper.
He lived in tent houses near an airstrip where the DC-3’s or “Twin Otters” would pick up the smokejumpers and fly them to the fires.
They sometimes used tree limbs to swat fires. They also used chainsaws to cut a fire line. If there was a river or steam nearby, they could pump the water onto the fire.
“Alaska is so remote. We’d get drops of supplies like water and food and would make our tents out of the parachutes. And you needed netting to keep out the mosquitoes which were really incredibly thick,” he said.
Brooks jumped on fires in U.S. National Forests in just about every Western state. He remembers the huge fires started by lightning in Washington in 1970.
“Smokejumpers from all over jumped on that fire,” he said. “The sheer magnitude of the fires and resources it took to fight it is what makes that one stand out in my memory.”
One of his best friends was hit by a falling snag when they were building a fire line at night using McClouds and Plaskies. “He still has back trouble today,” he said.
Brooks has lost close friends and fellow smokejumpers in the line of duty. One has hit by a snag and killed, and in 1994, during the South Canyon fire in Colorado, Hot Shots and smokejumpers were overrun by fire and killed. Brooks said they also lost a team of smokejumpers in a helicopter crash while being ferried back to their base camp.
Brooks’ next assignment was in the Big Bar District in Shasta Trinity National Forest as a fire crew captain.
Brooks also worked in the Klamath National Forest for five years as engine captain. He fought the Hogg Fires on the Klamath in 1977 and was a sector boss in charge of the fire perimeter for two and a half months.
In late 1979, Brooks was promoted to Battalion Chief in the Plumas National Forest in the Feather River Ranger District. The district covers half a million acres north of Highway 70 to Sterling City and south to the Yuba River. He also worked on fires in Southern California, and the Montana fire in 2001. In 2002, he was promoted to Division Chief, and a year later he went to the San Bernardino County fires.
Another memorable moment was cutting a 100-foot National Christmas tree above Feather Falls to take to the White House.
Brooks has been a member of the Butte County Fire Chief Association and meets with fire chiefs in Butte County. He expressed appreciation to Chief Henri Brachais and Chief Dave Pittman, whom he has worked with over the years.
“The most satisfying and rewarding part of this job is being able to see people do well like when the Hot Shots became certified,” he said. “And, also you feel a sense of accomplishment that is very satisfying when you complete a campaign after working on a fire.”
Brooks also emphasized the importance of training that teaches firefighters how to be prepared.
Today (Wednesday) is Brooks’ last day. “I’ve had some great times with great people. I want to thank all the employees of the ranger district, the fire chiefs Brachais and Pittman, and especially I want to thank my wife, Nadene, for being my partner for 34 years,” he said.