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Show fr0m top to harness. After they've been mended (the nylon cloth is often torn by tree limbs when firejumpers land) the parachutes are repacked with great care. Firejumpers lives depend on properly packed chutes, in the Paraloft across from the warehouse, smakejumpers practice falling, dangling in harnesses suspended from cables rather than from actual parachutes. Tremendous amounts of supplies are required for the thousands of fire personnel who may be working at a single forest f i r e . Hardworking crew members really need the three substantial meals a day vihich are set up on long tables inside tents. They also need equipment to fight the fires - shovels, bulldozers, axes, pumps, and planes to drop fire retardant. All these supplies have to be freighted into areas vihich may be hard to reach and almost roadless, and they must be there as soon as the crevis arrive. Cooks, dispatchers, and f i r s t aid people are on the scene, along viith specialists viho drive trucks viith mobile fire weather units to keep track of viind and vieather on an hourly basis. "Winds are the t r i c k i e s t things to deal with," Karen says. "They cause the kind of blowups that k i l l people. A sudden shift of wind will change the flirection of the f i r e and the speed at which i t ' s burning. At Idaho's 1979 Ship Island f i r e , two f i r e crewmen viere working on the side of a creek opposite the main burn vihen the f i r e "spotted" - shot burning embers across the creek. Flames raced up the h i l l vihere the men were standing. They knew they couldn't outrun the f i r e , so they got out the fire shelters vihich crew members are required to carry folded and attached to their belts. These small, igloo-shaped shelters are made of material |