Obit watch.

I missed this while I was on the road: Robert W. Sallee died last week.

Mr. Sallee was the last survivor of the 1949 Mann Gulch fire, which killed 12 out of 15 smoke jumpers (and one non-smoke jumper). Mr. Sallee and another man, Walter Rumsey, managed to run uphill and escape the fire: R. Wagner Dodge, the leader of the group, escaped by lighting a backfire and lying in the embers.

I know I’ve said this before, but Young Men and Fire, Norman Maclean’s book about the Mann Gulch fire, is well worth reading.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 4th, 2014 at 10:23 am and is filed under Clippings, Obits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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