Tight-knit crew fights fires in Alaska and beyond

PALMER — A group of bearded buddies walk into the woods. This is not a cause for fear, but actually a service to public safety. Now that fall has come and nearly gone, the Gannett Glacier Fire Crew has returned home from their long fire season protecting wildlands in Alaska and the Lower 48. A band of 22 brothers walked into the woods to fight fires this spring, and walked out safely.

A typical fire season starts in April with a handful of new hires. Gannett Glacier Assistant Superintendent Jered Kemp says they will receive somewhere around 100 applications for four or five spots. If they can meet the rigorous physical standards of becoming a wildland firefighter, they shake the rust off by doing prescribed burns of grass on JBER. As the summer begins, grass fires in the Valley need attention and give way to hotter forest fires in the interior. Once peak fire season in the state has gone by the end of July, hotshot crews travel to the Lower 48 to work two to three weeks at a time assisting local fire crews with larger burns. Gannett Glacier traveled throughout the western United States and fought the Mendocino Complex fire, the largest in California history.

“Seeing how many homes were actually burnt down, it’s really is just mind opening. You kind of have this eerie feeling like, we’re here to do a job and these people depend on us to try and stop those fires,” Kemp said.

Not all responses end in tragedy. The physically fit and highly trained crew of wildland firefighters has learned from years of experience. While Kemp describes the wildland business as a young man’s game, there are crew members above the age of 40. Many of the crew helped on the Sockeye Fire in 2015, and saw some success leading a charge in Utah.

“That feeling we just helped secure this entire fire, probably 500 to 600 acres at that point, in a couple days, it’s a really good feeling and there was homes everywhere,” Kemp said.

Kemp got the idea to apply after one of his friends from wrestling in high school got on the crew. Kemp did not get the job on his first application, but seven summers after getting the call to become a wildland firefighter, he’s helping lead a group of local young men.

“There’s a major brotherhood aspect to it,” Kemp said. “It’s a mix of all these young men coming in and they all kind of know each other through sports or going to school together. I think it kind of helps that brotherhood and that camaraderie aspect.”

Upon passing the fitness standards, firefighter’s can expect a summer full of camping, hiking, and cutting down trees to try to stop forest fires. While most will either fit into the sawing or digging category, some are asked to have dynamic skills in the field organizing multiple facets of the operation. When grown men are left in the woods for weeks at a time, competitions ensue over who can grow the longest beard.

“We like to have beard competitions. It’s just part of the culture. I’m not sure who won this year, there’s some good beards,” Kemp said.

While his crew is cutting line, Kemp is often looking ahead at where the fire will go next and communicating with air support or other fire crews. Kemp had aspirations of a leadership position early on but had to pay his dues, as many of the crewmembers at Gannett Glacier stick around. There are a variety of career opportunities in wildland firefighting, and those that do leave often join another crew in state, out of state, or go for further training to specific aspects of firefighting. The crew goes through rigorous safety training during the mandatory two weeks in April and each and every day prior to engaging a fire.

“We’re doing all this training, training, training! Then you go out into the field and you apply it and see that it works. It keeps us safer and keeps us efficient,” Kemp said.

While this service is vital to ensure that property and parks don’t burn down, there are award shows for the best firefighters. Appreciation comes in the contact with other people whose homes they may have saved.

“It’s kind of the culture of wildland firefighters is to stay humble and do your job. It’s cool sometimes when you walk into an area with a lot of locals, or public around and they start clapping for you. That’s about as much praise as we get,” Kemp said. “It is a really great feeling getting appreciated by these people.”

While Kemp aspires to continue his rise and lead fire crews on a larger scale, the thing he loves most about the job is how it can be different on any given day.

“Those times when it’s really rippin’ are some of my favorite moments. You just get that adrenaline rush, and you’re with all your buddies working towards one goal: to stop this fire,” Kemp said. “It’s a lot of fun. It’s really hard work, but when you’ve got helicopters flying over you dropping water on ten foot flame lengths, and you’ve got air support buzzing around, helping out, and you’re talking to them, you’re talking to your crew, you’re talking to other resources like another crew working towards you and you’ve just got all these people coming together with one goal in mind. That’s my favorite part about it.”