[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 134 (Wednesday, September 25, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11230-S11231]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THANKING FIREFIGHTERS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, as I indicated last week, one of my concerns 
is how people feel about Government. We hear so much negativism that it 
seems that nothing good ever happens in Government. Whenever I return 
to Nevada, and especially when I go to the elementary and secondary 
schools, and universities, I always tell those young people that 
Government has done good things for people and continues to do good 
things for people.
  What I want to do is, certainly, not whitewash what Government has 
done or is doing, because we all know we can do better and could have 
done better in the past. What I want to do, on a periodic basis, is 
talk about some of the things that are happening in Government that are 
good.
  Every summer, communities up and down the east coast keep a wary eye 
out for the hurricane season and the havoc that hurricanes wreak. It is 
hard for me to comprehend the devastation that has taken place in the 
State of Florida, as an example.
  Here in Washington, we only have to look back a few weeks to the 
chaos caused by Hurricane Fran. But just getting a little bit of that 
vicious storm, the Potomac overflowed its banks, we have roads that 
were washed out, and people all across Virginia have soaked 
basements. Commuting became very difficult.

  Out in the western part of the United States, we have problems that 
are also created by nature. It happens almost on a yearly basis, and 
that, Mr. President, is the calamity of wildfires. I am sure people 
from the East have difficulty understanding how these fires will rage 
over thousands and sometimes millions of acres of land. They are very 
difficult to stop. The dry hot weather, mixed with the brittle 
underbrush, makes millions of acres nothing more than tinderboxes 
waiting for a flash of lightning, or a careless act by a human being.
  So far this year in 1996, almost 6 million acres have been consumed 
by fires across the United States. About 90,000 fires have started. 
Firefighters have managed to quell most all the fires. Those they have 
been unable to defeat are in the hundreds.
  The manpower required to battle Mother Nature is mindboggling. Mr. 
President, 25,000 firefighters worked this summer to save communities 
from these wild raging fires. On August 30, it reached its peak; that 
is, the battle of man against nature, when 22,000 men and women in 1 
day were on the fire lines trying to control these fires.
  The efforts of these firefighters are coordinated through a 
Government agency called the National Interagency Fire Center, which is 
based in Boise, ID. This agency was established 31 years ago as a 
cooperative project with the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest 
Service.
  When a fire breaks out, local firefighters usually can handle it, but 
if they cannot, it is then that they call the National Interagency Fire 
Center, in effect, asking for help. Then the Fire Center calls in 
resources from the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife 
Service, National Park Service, Forest Service, and the Bureau of 
Indian Affairs, or any combination thereof. As ground and air crews 
battle these fires, the National Interagency Fire Center--experts in 
fire ecology, fire behavior--work with the National Weather Service 
personnel to plan strategies for fighting these raging fires while 
keeping an eye, of course, on changing weather patterns. These fires 
become so intense, Mr. President, that they, on occasion, create their 
own weather.
  As we all know, firefighting is a dangerous and unglamorous business. 
But fighting wildfires is more grueling than most can imagine.
  There are different types of firefighters. There are the major league 
firefighters and there are firefighters who are referred to as type 2 
crews.
  What are type 1 crews? They consist, first of all, of smokejumpers. 
When the fire breaks out and the National Interagency Fire Center is 
called, usually who they send in first are these very courageous, well-
trained men and women who are smokejumpers.
  There are only 400 of them in the United States, but they do so much. 
They are chosen for their incredible physical and mental stamina. These 
elite crews parachute into areas that are otherwise inaccessible. They 
carry with them packs that can weigh over 80 pounds. They jump from 
these airplanes with packs, as I indicated, weighing over 80 pounds. In 
the packs, they have firefighting equipment, and they have food and 
water, enough to last them for up to 3 days.
  They are the first line of defense most of the time in stopping one 
of these fires. When they are in the middle of one of these infernos, 
they push on and go for as many as 3 days without sleeping.
  We also have as first line fire crews people who rappel into an area 
off helicopters. Helicopter firefighting is something that is 
relatively new, but these helicopters also take these people into very 
remote areas. Once they have reached their destination, these brave 
people rappel down to the fire and begin their work.
  They, too, carry huge packs. There are 400 smokejumpers. There are 
only 200 of these so-called heli-rappellers working for the Forest 
Service.
  Hotshots are also part of the type 1 crews. These firefighters, part 
of an elite ground crew, are working the front lines of fires that have 
raged out of control. Many times we have the smokejumpers come in, we 
have the heli-rappellers come in and then if a fire cannot be 
contained, you have these hotshots come in and work the front lines of 
fires that have raged out of control.
  Mr. President, very recently, I called a man at one of the hospitals 
in Nevada. He was at the university medical center. He was there 
because it is the best and perhaps the only intensive care facility for 
people who are badly burned in all of the State of Nevada. He was 
transported about 400 miles from a fire that he had been fighting. He 
had to be transported because Dave Webb, the man who I called on the 
telephone, had been badly burned in a fire near Winnemucca, NV. He had 
second- and third-degree burns on his face, hands, and legs.
  When I called, he was not able to handle the telephone. Someone had 
to handle the telephone for him. He is one of the very brave men who 
every summer endanger their own lives to go into these areas where it 
is difficult to comprehend people would be willing to go into.
  I talked with him about what had happened, and he explained it to me, 
with a lot of humility, embarrassed that the fire had gotten to him and 
burned him so badly. He felt that he had been a failure. Of course, he 
had not been a failure. He had worked in many of these fires.
  This happens every summer. He was one of the lucky ones. He was not 
killed.
  These type 1 crews, like Dave Webb, have worked together for many 
years. They know each other. They are, in effect, the Green Berets of 
the firefighters. I extend my appreciation to the type 1 firefighting 
crews, those who jump out of airplanes, climb out of helicopters, who 
work the front lines.
  Mr. President, there are others, though, thousands and thousands of 
others who do not jump out of airplanes or helicopters or are not 
trained to be hotshots, but are extremely important. These are the type 
2 crews.

[[Page S11231]]

 They come in, they fight fires. They watch fires after they have been 
put out, because one of the real dangers we have with fires is they 
appear to be out, but some of the worst forest fires we have had have 
been initiated after the fire has been put out, when people thought the 
fires died down.
  Over 3,000 fires in the Great Basin alone burned almost 2 million 
acres this summer, and communities across the State of Nevada were 
witness to the dramas that played out in the hills and mountains above 
their homes.
  Driving just 2 miles out of Reno on Highway 80 going to the west, you 
see the results of one fire they had there this summer. There in the 
Belli Ranch area, 7,000 acres were consumed by a fire that is suspected 
to have been caused by an arsonist. This cost the taxpayers at least $2 
million.
  As you go past the Belli Ranch area and drive into the community, you 
are confronted by really a breathtaking scene.
  You can see the black sweep of the fires that rolled up and down hill 
after hill. Then, almost magically, the black gives way to the 
beautiful green of the sage and other brush and grasses. This green is 
the buttress of only about 10 or 20 feet from the homes. The fire got 
within 10 to 20 feet of the homes. Saved and intact, the homes in the 
community are alive with the daily hustle and bustle of life, having 
come so close to having been consumed, as other homes in Nevada and the 
West were consumed this summer.
  So people in Nevada and other parts of the West are grateful to the 
men and women who put their lives on the line to stop the fires before 
communities were swallowed up, just like the homes that were saved in 
the Belli Ranch fire.
  This fire season is drawing to a close, Mr. President, and we in the 
West breathe a sigh of relief that we have been able to endure again 
the wrath of mother nature, or sometimes an act of malice, or 
carelessness by man.
  We say thanks to the 22,000 firefighters that have been employed by 
the Federal Government during this fire season. To the pilots who fly 
into the face of these fires, the crews that jump out of these 
airplanes, out of these helicopters, the ground crews that struggle 
against the infernos that threaten communities, to the people of the 
National Interagency Fire Center who coordinate so well so much of the 
battle, I say thank you. And to my fellow Americans, Mr. President, I 
say, that is how Government works for you. I yield the floor.
  Mr. INHOFE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to extend my 5 
minutes to not to exceed 10 minutes.
  Mr. GRAHAM addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. GRAHAM. I would like to add to that unanimous-consent request 
that at the conclusion of the Senator's remarks, I be allowed to speak 
for 15 minutes for purposes of introduction of legislation.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. INHOFE. Thank you, Mr. President. I will be very happy to 
accommodate the distinguished Senator from Florida with his request.

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