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How B.C.’s firefighting smokejumpers take ‘ultra-extreme and make it seem mundane’
VANCOUVER — Standing on the edge of an open aircraft hatch, a smokejumper in a pale yellow suit steadies himself before rocking back then swinging out the door and vanishing as gravity takes over.
“Jumper’s away,” someone inside the plane yells as the video pans outside the window, where smoke billows toward the sky from a wildfire below.
The footage is from last year at the start of what would soon become the busiest smokejumping season in the 25-year history of the program.
Smokejumpers, also known as parattack crews, are wildland firefighters who are trained to parachute from fixed-wing aircraft, called “jumpships.”