Smokejumpers reach all-time record

Lightning storms keep firefighters in air throughout summer By Dylan Darling Tuesday, August 19, 2008 Photo by Jakob Schiller / Record Searchlight Brad Moschetti, center, and other smoke jumpers at the California Smokejumper base in Redding leave their plane Monday after returning from the Manzanita Fire in the Los Padres National Forest. Moschetti had the 524th jump of the season for the base Friday, breaking the base’s single-season record of 523 that had been set in 1999. It’s been a busy year for smoke jumpers flying out of Redding — a record-breaking busy one. As of Monday, the jumpers at the California Smokejumper base in Redding had done 562 individual parachute jumps, said Bob Bente, the base’s training foreman. The old record for a fire season, which typically runs from June until October, was 523. That old record,... [read full story]