Lemon Butte Fire Smokejumping Accident Fatality 1945

Malvin Brown, an Army medic and paratrooper from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is recognized as the first smokejumper killed in the line of duty. Brown volunteered for the US Army in 1942 and was assigned to the all-African American 555th Parachute Infantry, who were sent to the Western US to fight wildland fires as smokejumpers based in Pendleton, Oregon. On August 6, 1945, a plane load of 15 smokejumpers was ordered to suppress a lightning fire near Lemon Butte on the Umpqua National Forest. The jump spot was approximately two acres in size and surrounded by trees up to 200 feet tall. Brown exited the aircraft in a stick of nine jumpers, and his parachute became caught in a tree. While attempting a letdown, Brown fell 150 feet into a ravine and died. His body was recovered by his fellow paratrooper/smokejumpers and carried 15 miles to the nearest road. 

Smokejumping Accident, Fatality, Initial Attack