Fire Line
by Bob Gunter
Bob Selle is a long time resident of Bonner County, Idaho. He shares his experience, in his own words, of fighting fire when he was very young.
GUNTER: You were talking about logging, Bob. They had a lot of fires around here, forest fires. Do you remember any forest fires?
SELLE: Oh, they had some big fires back in those days. Course, I thought, I went out on one fire with my brother when I was seventeen years old. It was in nineteen thirty-three. Beings I was with my brother and they wanted men so bad and I had experience logging, why they hired me because they wouldn't hire anybody unless they were eighteen, see. And I didn't lie about my age. I told em how old I was. Cause you had to sign a contract when you went out to fight fire with the Forest Service. The fire was in the head of the Coeur d'Alene River, back in there some place and they only had one road up to the Pend Oreille divide at that time.
They never got bulldozers to build roads until in the thirties, you see. They had built this one road up there so we went ? and I remember we walked a full day to get to where the fire camp was and we had to carry a sleeping bag and each had to carry a tool, a pick, a shovel, an ax or whatever you wanted, into the camp. And we walked a full day in there and that was a big fire.
I don't think anybody knew where the fire was or where we were 'cause our camp burned up once and we had to go and get in the cooled off ashes and stay. We were up there about thirty days and I remember that was in nineteen thirty three because when I came down I got a pay check for a hundred and twenty some dollars 'cause they'd made a mistake on my time and I tried to tell the guy and I said, "I didn't earn that much, I was only up there…" and he said, "I've gotta give you what I got here. Don't argue and go on." They wrote me a check for that much money. Well, boy, I was one rich kid! I had one year to go to school yet, see. Yeah. That fire never was out until the winter put it out, snowed it out.
GUNTER: What was it like back there?
SELLE: What was it like? Well, not good. You just had a sleeping bag and you just found you a place and you dug a little hole so you wouldn't roll around in it and maybe put a little leaves in it. You didn't have any pad ? you just had a sleeping bag ? and they weren't all that great at that time. The cooks had to cook on bonfires, you know, and they had big square pans, oh, maybe six inches deep and four foot square, and they had several of them on their bonfire. Everything was in there in the grease frying and cooking. That's what you got. Then they made sandwiches. Evidently packed bread in too cause they always had a sandwich when you had to line the queue up and go by and they'd give you a lunch, you know, when you was going out on the fire line.
GUNTER: What would you do on the fire line?
SELLE: Well, you'd dig trail with grub hoe and shovel, see. You'd follow the fire and you'd dig a trail so it couldn't crawl, crawl on the ground and get over the trail, you see. But if the wind came up, blowing around, then you had to go do that again. No dozers or anything. No horses or anything to help you except the handwork ? a grub hoe and a shovel and the crosscut saws, of course. You get a tree on fire that looked like it was going to fall across the line, they'd fall it back into the fire, you know. They had to patrol it all the time. When they once got a section of line, you got on patrol then you didn't have to work very hard, you see very hard cause you didn't have to dig.
You had a section of line you had to keep moving up and down and if it got across a little bit, put it out. Yeah. But it was hard work when they were building trail ? smoke and hot and trying to stay as close to the fire as you can, you know, and stop it where you dig your trail. Yeah.
They fight fire different nowadays. They have tankers and airdrops but they still do a lot of handwork digging the trail around it as you see on television. We did that handwork even like they do now. But we didn't have any help, you didn't have any help with bulldozers, no way. It was kind of dangerous. Yeah. Work. Yeah.
To see more great old photos of Sandpoint and the surrounding areas :: Click Here ::
All photographs have been used with permission of the Bonner County Museum.
Old Sandpoint
To experience the charm of a town one must live there. Bob Selle is an old-timer in the Sandpoint area. Here, in his own words, he gives us a peek at a young person's...
Early Sandpoint "Hang Town"
Today Sandpoint, Idaho is known for its beautiful lake and majestic mountains. It is known as a good place to find serenity and a sense of peace. But the Sandpoint...
McFarland House
The old building is called the McFarland House by practically everyone that lives in the Sandpoint, Idaho area. It is located on the corner of Highway 95...
The Fish House
The whistle of the strange looking craft broke the silence as it pulled away from the City Docks of Sandpoint...
Street Cars
In the early days of Sandpoint, Idaho there was quite a transportation problem. For most people there were two ways of getting around-walk or ride a horse...
USO Club
The community Hall in Sandpoint, Idaho took on a national function in 1942. The YMCA leased the hall from the city for $1 a year to be used as a USO club...
2nd Sandpoint Hospital
It was on May 23, 1903 that the Northern Idaho News heralded the opening of Sandpoint's second hospital by stating, " Dr. Ones F. Page established a hospital...
First School
In the early years of the pioneer town called Sandpoint, it was a struggle for parents to educate their children. Funds had to be subscribed to hire the teachers...
Along the Wild Horse Trail
Long before the white man came there was a trail. The Indians for time immemorial had used it. The old trail started on the Spokane River and ran through...
Bonner County Poor Farm
Pat Gooby has lived in Sandpoint all his life and as a child did chores at the old County Poor Farm. I asked Pat to tell me a story about the farm and here...
Coming Home
We sat on the lawn in front of the house that had meant so much to her. She, and her three children, had come from Seattle for a time of remembering...
Hope, Idaho
The first white man to come to the area was the famed David Thompson, map maker and fur dealer. He had traveled from Canada and built Kulyspell House...
The Campfield Ferry
The Idaho Territorial Legislature granted a license to operate a ferry to Charles H. Campfield and Associates. That was on December 22, 1864. The authorized...
Sandpoint had no Ferry
On April 18, 1891, C.R.Martin and A.T.Dickinson received a license for $36.00 after posting a $1,000.00 bond, authorizing them to operate a ferry at...
Here and There in Sandpoint 2
At one time Priest Lake was the scene of a movie camp owned by Nell Shipman. She was an old time movie star and produced movies at Lionhead Lodge...
Library in the Early Years
The roots of the present library system in Bonner County, Idaho, started in 1905 when a few individuals opened a "free reading room". Hope was...
Logging in Bonner County
Bob Selle has lived in this area since 1923. He was seven years of age when his family came to the Sandpoint area. His first experience in logging...
The Sundance Fire
The Selkirk Mountains still show scars from the devastating effects of the Sundance fire. The fire started on August 23, 1967 with a lightning strike...
Pend Oreille Lodge
The two old chimneys still stand like two fingers pointing to the heavens. They are all that remain of what once was a show place along the banks of...
Sandpoint 1901-1902
When you walk the main streets of today's Sandpoint you will find most of the businesses are geared to meet the need of the tourist that frequent the area...
Smelting Companies
It was in March, 1903, that the Kootenai County Republican announced that "ground will be broken in ten days" for the new smelting company located at...
Technology
Men invent things for two reasons: There seems to be in every person a desire to find a better way of doing things and the second reason for invention is to make...
Train Technology
Sandpoint, Idaho, came into being because of the railroad and timber. The advances in technology in these two areas are mind boggling. Follow the railroad...
The War Years 2
Many people came to Sandpoint during the war years. Two of them were Beth Knight and Price May. Her story, in her own words, continues and she tells about...
Trestle fr. Sunnyside to TrestleCr.
The picture is of the old trestle that used to go from Sunnyside to Trestle Creek just a few miles from Sandpoint, Idaho. In the picture there is seen...
©Copyright 1998- by Sandpoint.com - All rights reserved