The above photo shows some historic cabins on June 30, 2012 that firefighters worked hard to protect during the White Draw Fire northeast of Edgemont, South Dakota. The photo below was taken yesterday, about 16 months later. Both were shot by Bill Gabbert.
This was the fire on which the MAFFS 7 air tanker crashed on July 1, 2012, killing four crew members and injuring two. In July a memorial was dedicated a few miles away from the crash site in memory of the aerial fighters.
Even in a short period of time nature can return to it’s natural state of affairs.
I’ve always been amazed at how quickly nature resets itself, even when it appears to us as “devastation”. Many times I’ve been working amongst smoking debris on an uncontrolled fire, and the birds are singing, rabbits and squirrels bouncing through, deer wandering past. None seem concerned about what we view as total destruction. Within days in some areas, the green grass is sprouting, and within a season or two the only sign of the fire is the burnt skeletons of the trees, but all else goes on as it has since long before we were here to make it “better”.
I’m so glad they were able to save these cabins. A historic lookout on the Coronado National Forest, Atascosa Lookout, was lost a few years ago. The trail was one of my favorites for a winter hike. So sad it is gone. From what I heard, there was a discussion about wrapping it, but they did not, and let it go. Edward Abbey spent time in this lookout, and I believe wrote a book or two while up there.
Bill – would you like me to send you a photo?
Mr. Gabbert, what did the firefighters do to protect the cabins? I thought I saw a picture last year of cabins being wrapped, were these wrapped as well? It looks like the area was burned over so what ever they did it looks like they did a good job!
Fire lines had been constructed around the two structures and there was black up against them. The firefighters may have burned out from the fire lines.
Nice photos to show how nature is not “destroyed” by fire. There must be a pretty good story behind those cabins to make them worth preserving. I hope the cabins were not the reason for the airmen’s deaths.
The cabins had nothing to do with the crash the next day, and occurred miles away from this site.