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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. Where did the Fish Creek fire actually burn?
(a) Both up and down the tributary.
(b) Through the forest to the town.
(c) Down the tributary.
(d) Across the back acres of the forest.

2. Who was Mrs. Brown?
(a) The telephone operator.
(b) The wife of the owner of the lodge.
(c) The owner of the lodge.
(d) The postmistress.

3. What question did the author ask Mrs. Brown before leaving the lodge?
(a) He asked if she could feed him something.
(b) He asked how to get back to the main road.
(c) He asked if she had started the fire.
(d) He asked if he could repay her for her kindness.

4. Where did the fire starters assume the Fish Creek fire would travel?
(a) To the edge of the lake.
(b) Into town.
(c) Into the deepest part of the forest.
(d) Up the tributary in a box canyon with cliffs.

5. For what did the fire fighters hope to use Fish Creek?
(a) A meeting place for firefighters.
(b) A fire line to stop the fire.
(c) A starting point for wetting brush.
(d) A landing strip for airplanes.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did the ghost do to the author while the two were on the mountainside?

2. What did Harry Gisborne witness in 1929?

3. What are the natural components of a blowup?

4. What would have happened had the author stepped across the fire immediately when it jumped the trail?

5. When did the author first hear a voice in the fire during the Fish Creek fire?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who invented the first parachutes? What were parachutes and their cords made of then? What material were they made of in 1949 when the Smokejumpers landed on Mann Gulch? Why?

2. Why did Dodge set a fire in front of the fire raging toward himself and his men on Mann Gulch? What was he trying to accomplish? Why did his men not follow his orders?

3. What are the roles of the foreman and the second-in-command in a jump team of firefighters? What is each man responsible for during the approach to the fire?

4. What did the author know about the Mann Gulch fire based on his experience with fires as a young man?

5. How did the firefighters at the Forest Service think the fire would spread? Why did they think the fire starters had the same idea?

6. Why were the grasses so high on the north side at the time of the fire? What implications did this have for the Mann Gulch fire?

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

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

9. What is a crown fire? How does it become ignited? What does it sound like in the forest? What elements are necessary to create a crown fire?

10. When the author returned to the spot in which he had stood when the fire jumped the trail, what did he realize about himself? What did he realize about the fire?

(see the answer keys)

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