It was August 1910, in the American West The worst in u s. history,called the Big Burn, was roaring toward Ed Pulaski and his crew of firefighters. The intense heat cooked fish alive in the rivers, and rock exploded around them. Surrounded by flames and with nowhere to run, many of Pulaski's men thought they would soon be dead.
The firefighters were trying to stop one of nature's most powerful forces. Forests in the American West go though natural cycle of fire and re-growth. A wildfire burns away old trees, clearing space for new ones. Certain types of trees cannot reproduce without fire.
Many wildfires start during dry thunderstorms that occur in the mountains in the summertime. These storms bring almost no rain, but they product lightning that sets fire to dry grasses and dead wood. The American Indians knew how to live with these fires. Sometimes they even set their own fires to clear paths through the forests. By the early 1900s, new settlers had moved west and had established towns and farms. To them, fire was an enemy.
Ed Pulaski lived in one of these towns, Wallace, Idaho, which was in the path of the big Burn. While his wife stayed in town with their baby, Pulaski and his men marched toward the fire. Their plan was to remove the trees bushes, and grass at the fire's edge. Without this dry vegetation, they thought the flames would probably die out.
However, the Big Burn was too big to fight. Dozens of smaller fires had combined into one big, terrible blaze, which got even worse when strong winds blew in form the northwest. The fire was lifted into the tops of the trees. Burning wood flew 10 miles (16 kilometers) away and started new fires. Flames 300 feet (91.5 high rose over the frightened firefighters. A fire that big is a monster. It makes its own weather sucking air in to its center and twisting like a tornado. Pulaski forgot about firefighting and focused on saving the live of the 45 men who were with him.
Even though Pulaski could hardly see, he managed to find an opening in the earth. It was the entrance to an old mine. He ordered his men to go into the mine. Some resisted because the air inside was filled with smoke and was as hot as an oven. It would be a terrible place to die. Some men tried to run out, but Pulaski grabbed his gun and threatened to shoot anyone who ran away.
Flaming sticks were flying into the mine. The wood that supported the roof of the mine was catching fire. Pulaski went to the mine entrance and fought the flames with horse blankets. He found water dripping through the roof of the mine, collected it in his hat, and threw it on the flames.
The hot, smoky air inside the mine became so hard for the men to breathe that they fell to the ground, unconscious. Finally, the fire roared past, and most of the men had survived. After the survivors woke up, they made their way toward the light at the mine entrance. There they discovered Pulaski on the ground, his unmoving body covered with ashes. One of the men said that the boss was dead, but then a voice from the ashes told the man he was wrong. Ed Pulaski was very much alive.
The town of Wallace was partly destroyed in the fire, but Pulaski's family survived. Ed Pulaski continued fighting wildfires, and found many new, better way for firefighters to do their job. Even now, more than a century later, firefighters remember him daily as they face forest fires. Their main hand tool, which combines a chopping end with a digging end, is called a pulaski.