Sallee and Rumsey at Mann Gulch

Composer's Note:

The text seen in the video accompanying the performer and electronic sound in this piece includes a few sentences from Norman MacLean’s book Young Men and Fire. That work describes the happenings on August 5, 1949 in Montana during the Mann Gulch fire that killed 12 firefighters who had parachuted into the wilderness. On that day, rangers Sallee and Rumsey, young smokejumpers, survived by outrunning the rapid fire, while their crew chief, Dodge, made an escape fire, enabling his own survival.