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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did Dodge survive the fire?
(a) By laying face-down in the ashes of his escape fire.
(b) By running through the fire to a cool spot.
(c) By running into an opening in the reef.
(d) By laying face down in the smoldering grass.

2. Where did the author begin running when the Fish Creek fire caught at the next fire line?
(a) Toward the lake.
(b) Back to the fire house.
(c) Uphill.
(d) Downhill.

3. What happens when a fire up a hillside closes in on someone?
(a) It generates adrenalin which helps to keep running.
(b) It is easier to breathe and find a way out.
(c) Everything feels only like exhaustion.
(d) Everything begins to feel only like thirst.

4. When did the Forest Service begin using planes to spot fires?
(a) 1935.
(b) 1925.
(c) 1920.
(d) 1930.

5. Where did the burned and disabled deer die?
(a) In the creek.
(b) On the road.
(c) At the base of the mountain.
(d) On a burning log.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did the author feel while he was running away from the Fish Creek fire?

2. Where did Sallee and Rumsey run to get out of the fire's path?

3. Where was the author when he was startled to see a terribly burned deer?

4. What question does a Smokejumper foreman ask while fighting a fire?

5. What did Harry Gisborne witness in 1929?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is a Pulanski? Where did it come from? What does it do? Who is it named after?

2. What are the two causes of fires? What caused the Mann Gulch fire? Where did the fire start? How?

3. What is the Story of the Three Winds?

4. To what did Maclean compare the smokejumper's jump from the plane? Why?

5. What did the ghost finally ask the author? What happened when the author answered the question? How did he react?

6. What did the author do when he reached the top of the ridge? What did he decide to do next?

7. Where was the author when the fire spread to the side hill trail, the firefighters' second line of defense? What important decision did he make right as he saw the fire jump from one side of the trail to the other?

8. Why did the author finally decide he needed to see the Mann Gulch fire the summer he was staying in his cabin at Seely Lake?

9. As the author was running up the hillside away from the creek, where was the fire? What choices did he have for escape? What happened when he was half way up the hillside?

10. Who was Harry T. Gisborne? What was his contribution to the history of firefighting, and understanding the Mann Gulch fire in particular?

(see the answer keys)

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