Fighting a Fire for Old Friends

was based in Plains, Mont., as an initial attack helicopter. This
means that we are the first responder of observed smoke and as such
fly all over the state putting out fires.

So when I was dispatched to Big Timber, Mont., I didn’t really
look where the fire was, I just flew to it to begin work. The fire
was already large when we arrived, much too big for a single
helicopter to contain. And later that first day the fire blew up
and became a monster. It swept down toward a town called …
Absarokee. So there I was working near a town that I did not expect
to ever see again.

This is where it got interesting and personal for me. When we
bought the Case steam engine and wrote down George Miller’s story,
he had clear memories of where the engine worked cutting timber its
whole life. It was parked on the Picket Pin Mountain, cutting
timbers for the nearby chromium mine. He also related where the
engine was moved and sat (the Limestone Ranch) after it was removed
from Picket Pin.

The Big Timber fire covered more than 150,000 acres. When I
looked at the map during a morning briefing, I noticed many
familiar names and finally realized where I had heard them before –
at breakfest with George, many years before. I was flying over the
places that had been only memories before, yet I was getting to see
where the engine had been. It was fascinating connecting the past
with the present.

The fire turned out to be very bad for Dorothy Miller and her
family, with much of their grazing land burned. I certainly didn’t
realize when we were fighting the fire, especially on those first
couple of days, that there was this connection, and I found it
amazing. I was glad to be able to do my part to reduce the toll on
her family.

– Joseph Berto