The agency also increased emphasis on fire research and the science of fire behavior, developing new firefighting techniques and equipment in the hopes of never repeating the tragic events of August 5, 1949.

The Forest Service designed new training techniques and implemented additional safety measures for its firefighters. The events of Mann Gulch greatly influenced the future of wildfire suppression and fire research. Of the sixteen men on site, Dodge, Rumsey, and Sallee would end up as the only survivors. Sallee, were able to find shelter by climbing inside a small crevice in the canyon's rock wall. As the massive fire overtook the group, two of the smokejumpers, Walter B. He directed the group towards this safe area, but due to the reigning confusion the rest of the men continued up the hill. As the men retreated, Dodge stopped to set a small escape fire, creating a burned-over area that the fire would bypass. Mackey was a smokejumper and one of the 14 fatalities of the 1994 South Canyon fire. The 1996 film Smoke Jumpers is loosely based on Don Mackey's life.

6 Author Nora Roberts's 2011 novel Chasing Fire also details the lives and loves of a group of smokejumpers. Wagner 'Wag' Dodge ordered the men to drop their equipment and run back up the steep, rocky hillside. Smokejumpers are described in Philip Connor's 2011 book Fire Season. To escape the advancing fire, now less than 100 yards away, crew foreman R. Later studies estimated that the fire covered 3,000 acres in ten minutes during this blow-up stage. As the men headed down the gulch towards the Missouri River, high winds caused the fire to suddenly expand, cutting off the men's route and forcing them back uphill. Ironically, Harrison had quit the smokejumpers the year before because of the danger. Harrison, a fire guard from the nearby Meriwether Canyon Campground. The fifteen smokejumpers landed at Mann Gulch about a half-mile away from the fire. Two jumpers about to take off in Ford Trimotor plane for a practice jump, Lolo National Forest, Montana, June, 1941.

The smoke jumper book summary