Satellite Phones Make Cowboys of Wildfire Sentinels

BOISE, Idaho - Alone on a ridge with a lightning storm rolling in, a fire lookout used to be the loneliest job in the West. This summer, the Forest Service's remote sentinels got satellite phones — and a direct line to the cavalry.

The agency equipped hundreds of lookouts and ridgetop spotters with satellite phones after a review found that radio dead zones had delayed fire reports by hours during last year's record season.

California's lightning siege in June, which ignited more than 2,000 fires in a matter of days, was the technology's trial by fire. Spotters called in dozens of new starts before smoke columns rose high enough for aircraft to see.

"The first hour decides whether a fire is an acre or a thousand acres," said a regional fire director. "These phones buy us the first hour."

The rugged handsets, built by Iridium, work anywhere with a view of the sky and have become standard gear alongside the lookout's traditional tools: the fire finder, the binoculars and, still, the lightning stool with its glass insulators.

___

Associated Press writers contributed to this report.

RECOMMEND THIS STORY