The Big Burn

大烧伤

September 7, 2022 · American Experience (PBS) · 原文

Narrator: : On August 19th, 1910, an assistant Forest Ranger named Ed Pulaski rode out of the smoke-filled Bitterroot Mountains that loomed over the town of Wallace, Idaho.

旁白：1910 年 8 月 19 日，一位名叫艾德·普拉斯基 (Ed Pulaski) 的助理护林员骑马走出爱达荷州华莱士镇上空烟雾缭绕的比特鲁特山脉。

For months he and his crew had been fighting wildfires in the Bitterroots, but despite all of their efforts, he was afraid the town was going to burn.

几个月来，他和他的团队一直在苦根镇扑灭野火，但尽管他们付出了一切努力，他还是担心这座小镇会被烧毁。

Timothy Egan, Author, The Big Burn: : Ed Pulaski comes down and sees his wife and sees his adopted daughter, Elsie, and says, "Leave.

蒂莫西·伊根 (Timothy Egan)，《大烧伤》作者：艾德·普拉斯基 (Ed Pulaski) 下来看到了他的妻子，也看到了他的养女埃尔西 (Elsie)，然后说：“离开。

You've got to get out.

你必须出去。

You've got to leave to save your life," and she says, "No, I'm gonna stay here." And so he tells her to go up and hide in this reservoir.

你必须离开才能保命，”她说，“不，我要留在这里。”于是他叫她上去躲在这个水库里。

If it really gets bad, they can go into the water.

如果情况真的很糟糕，他们可以进入水中。

So, the next day they go out to the edge of the trail there, kiss and say goodbye and thinking that would be the last time they ever see each other.

因此，第二天他们走到小路的边缘，亲吻并道别，并认为这将是他们最后一次见面。

Narrator: : That afternoon, without warning, the wind began to blow, and flaming embers shot down from the sky, igniting buildings.

旁白：那天下午，毫无预兆地，狂风大作，燃烧的余烬从天而降，点燃了建筑物。

Within minutes, Wallace was ablaze.

几分钟之内，华莱士就着火了。

Desperate residents tried to salvage their belongings.

绝望的居民试图抢救他们的财物。

Women and children were loaded onto the last train out of town.

妇女和儿童被载上最后一班出城的火车。

The roar of the wind and flames was overwhelming, the air so hot it was hard to breathe.

狂风和火焰的呼啸声铺天盖地，空气热得让人难以呼吸。

The biggest wildfire to ever hit the Northern Rockies, had begun.

北落基山脉有史以来最大的野火已经开始。

Timothy Egan, Author, The Big Burn: : The Big Burn destroys an area the size of Connecticut in 36 hours we've never had anything close to it.

蒂莫西·伊根 (Timothy Egan)，《大燃烧》作者：：大燃烧在 36 小时内摧毁了康涅狄格州大小的地区，我们从未有过任何接近它的情况。

Narrator: : It was an inferno that not only transformed the landscape of the West, but forever changed the nation's attitudes about its public lands.

旁白：：这是一场地狱，不仅改变了西方的面貌，而且永远改变了这个国家对其公共土地的态度。

Steve Pyne, Author, Year of the Fires: : The Great Fires in the Northern Rockies hit the U.S. Forest Service in ways that rippled through society the army call-out the political fights over strategy.

史蒂夫·派恩（Steve Pyne），《火灾之年》作者：：北落基山脉的大火对美国林业局造成了波及，引发了整个社会的连锁反应，军队引发了战略上的政治斗争。

It's all slammed together in one giant package.

所有这些都被挤在一个巨大的包裹里。

That made them great.

这让他们变得伟大。

Narrator: : It was a story of arrogance and pride, a belief that nature could be managed and fire brought under control.

旁白：这是一个关于傲慢和自豪的故事，相信自然可以被管理，火灾可以得到控制。

Michael Kodas, Writer: : There was an attitude that, if there's something wrong in the forest, we can go in there and fix it.

迈克尔·科达斯（Michael Kodas），作家：有一种态度是，如果森林里出了什么问题，我们可以进去解决它。

It was almost as if wildfire was this beast that we can actually hunt down and eradicate.

就好像野火是我们实际上可以追捕和消灭的野兽一样。

Narrator: : The selfless courage of a small group of men would inspire the nation, but questions would linger about whether their sacrifice had all been in vain.

旁白：一小群人的无私勇气将激励整个国家，但人们仍会质疑他们的牺牲是否都是徒劳的。

Steve Pyne, Author, Year of the Fires: : We can celebrate them as people of their time and era who played out fully the roles that the culture ascribed to them and yet admit that it would have been better if we'd done something else.

史蒂夫·派恩（Steve Pyne），《火灾之年》作者：：我们可以庆祝他们，因为他们是他们那个时代和时代的人，他们充分发挥了文化赋予他们的角色，但也承认如果我们做点别的事情会更好。

John N.

约翰·N.

Maclean, Writer: : It's a time of catastrophe a time of change, a time of coming up with a new vision.

作家麦克林：这是一个充满灾难的时代，一个变革的时代，一个提出新愿景的时代。

If you look at the landscape, the scars of 1910 are still there.

Narrator: : In the flea-bitten collection of ramshackle buildings known as Taft, Montana, college graduates were about as rare as an honest poker game.

旁白：：在蒙大拿州塔夫脱那片满是跳蚤的摇摇欲坠的建筑群里，大学毕业生就像诚实的扑克游戏一样稀少。

So the locals took notice when, in the early Spring of 1907, a group of fresh-faced rangers from the United States Forest Service stepped off the train.

因此，1907 年初春，一群来自美国林务局的新护林员走下火车时，当地人注意到了这一点。

The recent arrivals had come to manage some of the newly-created national reserves in the West, but nothing had prepared them for a place like Taft -- a boisterous, brawling, row of gambling parlors, whore-houses, and saloons.

新来的人来管理西方一些新建立的国家保护区，但他们对塔夫脱这样的地方毫无准备——一个喧闹、争吵、排成一排的赌场、妓院和酒吧。

One reporter called it "the wickedest city in America."

一位记者称其为“美国最邪恶的城市”。

Steve Pyne, Author, Year of the Fires: : You've got these temporary communities, particularly along the railroad lots of loose women, lots of loose men, lots of bums, people under assumed names.

史蒂夫·派恩（Steve Pyne），《火灾之年》作者：：你有这些临时社区，特别是在铁路沿线，有很多放荡的女人、很多放荡的男人、很多流浪汉、化名的人。

There's just this whole throng out there.

外面只有一大群人。

How do you impose some kind of order on this process, which had been characterized by almost complete chaos?

你如何在这个几乎完全混乱的过程中强加某种秩序？

Timothy Egan, Author, The Big Burn: : Taft had a higher murder rate than Chicago and five prostitutes for every man, they said, and when the rangers showed up, they were horrified.

蒂莫西·伊根（Timothy Egan），《大烧伤》作者：他们说，塔夫脱的谋杀率比芝加哥还要高，每人有五个妓女，当护林员出现时，他们感到震惊。

They cabled back to Forest Service headquarters, saying, "Two undesirable prostitutes setting up business on Forest Service land.

他们回电给林务局总部，称：“两名不受欢迎的妓女在林务局的土地上做生意。

What should we do?" And someone cabled back, "Get two desirable ones."

我们该怎么办？”有人回电说：“买两个合适的。”

Narrator: : The newly-minted rangers had been sent West by the founder of the Forest Service, an aloof, hard-driving bureaucrat with an almost missionary zeal for the management of America's public domain.

旁白：新组建的护林员是由林务局创始人派往西部的，他是一位冷漠、强硬的官僚，对管理美国公共领域有着近乎传教士般的热情。

In less than a decade, Gifford Pinchot had parlayed his family's wealth and social connections, a passionate love of trees, and a deft hand at politics to become America's preeminent forester.

在不到十年的时间里，吉福德·平肖充分利用了家族的财富和社会关系、对树木的热爱以及娴熟的政治手腕，成为美国杰出的林务员。

Timothy Egan, Author, The Big Burn: : Pinchot is one of the most fascinating characters, not just in American conservation, but in American history.

蒂莫西·伊根（Timothy Egan），《大烧伤》作者：：平肖是最迷人的人物之一，不仅在美国保护领域，而且在美国历史上。

He was a patrician; he was a very odd duck.

他是一位贵族；他是一只非常奇怪的鸭子。

He preferred to sleep on rocks than a soft bed.

他更喜欢睡在岩石上而不是柔软的床上。

He was an ascetic.

他是一位苦行僧。

But he had a vision.

但他有一个愿景。

Even though he was the product of a family that made their money in clear cutting forests; he became, you know, one of the founding figures of saving forests.

尽管他出身于一个靠砍伐森林赚钱的家庭。你知道，他成为了拯救森林的创始人之一。

Char Miller, Historian: : For Pinchot, nature was really a place of respite.

历史学家查尔·米勒 (Char Miller)：：对于平肖来说，大自然确实是一个休息的地方。

It's where you went to just forget other things and become whole and become safe and, and in that process come to know yourself.

在这里，你可以忘记其他事情，变得完整，变得安全，并在这个过程中认识自己。

Narrator: : Pinchot had forged friendships with some influential men in the growing conservation movement, in particular the famous naturalist, John Muir.

旁白：：平肖在不断发展的保护运动中与一些有影响力的人物建立了友谊，特别是著名的博物学家约翰·缪尔。

"You are choosing the right way into the woods," Muir told the young man, "You will never regret a single day spent thus."

“你选择了进入树林的正确道路，”缪尔告诉年轻人，“你永远不会后悔这样度过的每一天。”

Pinchot also developed a rapport with the young governor of New York, Theodore Roosevelt, a bond strengthened by their love of the wildness of nature, and a boyish thrill at testing themselves against it.

平肖还与年轻的纽约州州长西奥多·罗斯福建立了融洽的关系，他们对自然荒野的热爱以及在挑战自然的过程中表现出的孩子气的兴奋感加强了这种联系。

When Roosevelt ascended to the White House in 1901, he brought Pinchot into the inner circle of his administration.

1901 年罗斯福入主白宫后，他将平肖带入了政府的核心圈子。

The two men were determined to seize the mantle of conservation and radically rethink how the nation managed its estate.

这两个人决心承担保护的责任，并从根本上重新思考国家如何管理其遗产。

Up until the late 19th century, the country had done its best to develop its open spaces -- encouraging the wholesale harvesting of timber, industrial mining on a vast scale, the blasting of railroads through the mountains and across the continent.

直到 19 世纪末，该国已尽最大努力开发其开放空间——鼓励木材的批发采伐、大规模的工业采矿、穿越山区和整个大陆的铁路爆破。

Alfred Runte, Historian: : For over a century, their country has given its land away and Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot are calling a halt to that.

历史学家阿尔弗雷德·朗特：一个多世纪以来，他们的国家已经放弃了土地，西奥多·罗斯福和吉福德·平肖正在呼吁停止这种做法。

They're basically saying we're going to change the way we look at the future.

他们基本上是说我们将改变我们看待未来的方式。

Narrator: : Roosevelt and Pinchot were worried that unless they acted quickly to protect America's last great stands of white pine, spruce and fir, the forces of unbridled capitalism would devour them once and for all.

旁白：罗斯福和平肖担心，除非他们迅速采取行动，保护美国最后的白松、云杉和冷杉林，否则肆无忌惮的资本主义力量将永远吞噬它们。

Steve Pyne, Author, Year of the Fires: : Timber was really a critical industrial product, and we were going to run out, much like an oil crisis in present times.

史蒂夫·派恩（Steve Pyne），《火灾之年》作者：：木材确实是一种重要的工业产品，我们很快就会耗尽，就像当今的石油危机一样。

So the solution was to regulate this unsettled land as a public domain that would then be governed by scientific informed bureaus, and this would allow us to conserve it.

因此，解决方案是将这片不稳定的土地作为公共领域进行监管，然后由科学知识丰富的部门进行管理，这将使我们能够保护它。

Not lock it up, but to use it in some kind of rational regulated way.

不是把它锁起来，而是以某种合理规范的方式使用它。

Narrator: : Their Progressive vision imagined a new kind of commonwealth, National Forests, controlled by an enlightened corps of rangers, overseeing not just the timber, but also the minerals, the water and the wildlife -- for the benefit of all Americans.

旁白：：他们的进步愿景设想了一种新的联邦，即国家森林，由开明的护林员队伍控制，不仅监管木材，还监管矿物、水和野生动物——为了所有美国人的利益。

Char Miller, Historian: : A National Forest is not a pristine sanctuary; it is a utilized landscape.

历史学家查尔·米勒 (Char Miller)：：国家森林并不是一个原始保护区；它是一个原始保护区。这是一个被利用的景观。

So, it's a different model than a National Park, You can hunt on it, you can graze on it, you can mine on it.

所以，它是一个与国家公园不同的模式，你可以在上面打猎，你可以在上面放牧，你可以在上面采矿。

Its purpose is to be managed.

其目的是要被管理。

Narrator: : Previous presidents had already set aside large swaths of public land, but Roosevelt went much further, radically expanding America's National Forests.

旁白：：前任总统已经划出了大片公共土地，但罗斯福走得更远，从根本上扩大了美国的国家森林。

Then, in 1905, he placed them under the control of the Bureau of Forestry, now called the U.S. Forest Service, with Pinchot in charge.

然后，在 1905 年，他将它们置于林业局（现称为美国林务局）的控制之下，由平肖负责。

Timothy Egan, Author, The Big Burn: : At one point Roosevelt and Pinchot are on the floor of the White House, maps spread out all over, and they are mapping out future United States forests.

蒂莫西·伊根（Timothy Egan），《大燃烧》作者：：有一次，罗斯福和平肖站在白宫的地板上，地图铺满各处，他们正在绘制未来美国森林的地图。

And Roosevelt says "Oh God, have you ever been up in the Flathead Valley?

罗斯福说：“天哪，你去过弗拉特黑德山谷吗？

I had a bully time there once." He goes, "We've got to include that."

我曾经在那里受过欺负。”他说：“我们必须把它包括在内。”

In Roosevelt and Pinchot's time, they tripled the acreage of the national forests.

在罗斯福和平肖时代，他们将国家森林的面积增加了两倍。

So you have 200 million acres under the range of the Forest Service, bigger than most European countries.

因此，林业局管辖范围内有 2 亿英亩土地，比大多数欧洲国家还要大。

Narrator: : Now, the idealistic group of young men that constituted Pinchot's Forest Service were given the task of bringing their new conservationist vision to some of the wildest parts of the American West.

旁白：现在，组成平肖林业局的一群理想主义年轻人肩负着将他们新的保护主义愿景带到美国西部一些最荒凉地区的任务。

One of Pinchot's first hires was William Greeley, the hard-working son of a Congregational minister from upstate New York, who had spent a summer in the saddle alongside Pinchot, marking some of the first surveys of the new National Forests.

平肖特的第一批雇员之一是威廉·格里利（William Greeley），他是纽约州北部一位公理会牧师的儿子，工作勤奋，曾与平肖特一起度过了一个夏天，标志着对新国家森林的首次调查。

"We were privileged to become Pinchot's rangers," Greely remembered, "we had the thrill of building Utopia, and were a bit starry-eyed over it." Pinchot returned the sentiment.

“我们很荣幸成为平肖的护林员，”格里利回忆道，“我们为建造乌托邦而激动不已，并且对此有些不切实际。”平肖回应了同样的情绪。

He asked that 29-year old Greeley to oversee nearly 30 million acres, covering most of Montana, Idaho, and parts of South Dakota.

他要求 29 岁的格里利监管近 3000 万英亩的土地，覆盖蒙大拿州、爱达荷州的大部分地区以及南达科他州的部分地区。

Each of the 160 rangers under Greeley would be responsible for almost 300 square miles of National Forest.

格里利麾下的 160 名护林员每人负责近 300 平方英里的国家森林。

Char Miller, Historian: : Pinchot gave them a mission he gave them a sense of calling, a sense that the world could be changed through their own work and, and then let them go out to the west and work on these extraordinary landscapes.

查尔·米勒（Char Miller），历史学家：平肖给了他们一个使命，他给了他们一种使命感，一种可以通过自己的工作改变世界的感觉，然后让他们去西部，在这些非凡的景观上工作。

Timothy Egan, Author, The Big Burn: : They called what they were doing "The Great Crusade." In some ways, it was a religious crusade to them.

蒂莫西·伊根（Timothy Egan），《大烧伤》作者：他们称他们正在做的事情为“伟大的远征”。在某些方面，这对他们来说是一场宗教十字军东征。

They were doing God's work to preserve the earth.

他们正在做上帝的工作来保护地球。

Narrator: : Pinchot was known as "The Chief," or "G.P.," and the rangers so admired his leadership that they welcomed the nickname "Little G.P.s." "He made us feel like soldiers in a patriotic cause," one of his first students remembered.

旁白：平肖被称为“酋长”或“G.P.”，护林员们非常钦佩他的领导才能，因此他们欢迎“小 G.P.s”的绰号。 “他让我们感觉自己像一名爱国事业的士兵，”他的第一批学生回忆道。

Charles E.

查尔斯·E.

Williams, Buffalo Soliders National Museum: : Pinchot expected the GPs to go out and practice forestry the way they've been taught, full of innovation, energy, and they were up for the job.

布法罗士兵国家博物馆的威廉姆斯：：平肖希望全科医生能够按照他们所学到的方式走出去从事林业工作，充满创新和活力，并且他们已经做好了这项工作的准备。

But, what made that job difficult were the people that they encountered in these towns.

但是，让这项工作变得困难的是他们在这些城镇遇到的人。

The roustabouts, workers in the timber industry, in the mines, and railroads.

码头工人、木材工业、矿山和铁路工人。

Timothy Egan, Author, The Big Burn: : It was a great, great culture clash.

蒂莫西·伊根（Timothy Egan），《大烧伤》作者：：这是一场非常非常大的文化冲突。

Forest rangers were not popular at all.

护林员根本不受欢迎。

They were considered outsiders.

他们被视为局外人。

Even though this was public land, people still felt they could do as they wanted to with it.

尽管这是公共土地，人们仍然觉得他们可以用它做他们想做的事。

Alfred Runte, Historian: : The rangers, they're in charge of people who do not want the Forest Service to be there.

阿尔弗雷德·朗特（Alfred Runte），历史学家：：护林员，他们负责那些不希望林务局在那里的人。

Because the ranger is indeed standing between the frontier mentality and the resource, standing between what the frontier wants for the moment, and what Gifford Pinchot believes the country needs for the future.

因为护林员确实站在边疆心态和资源之间，站在边疆目前想要的东西和吉福德·平肖认为国家未来需要的东西之间。

Narrator: : As they squared off to do battle over National Forests, both sides would be humbled by one implacable foe -- nature itself.

旁白：：当他们为争夺国家森林而展开战斗时，双方都会被一个不可调和的敌人——大自然本身所折服。

Timothy Egan, Author, The Big Burn: : Fire is the last wild element of the West that hasn't been controlled.

蒂莫西·伊根（Timothy Egan），《大燃烧》作者：：火是西方最后一个未被控制的狂野元素。

Every wolf is gone, they've exterminated the grizzly bear, they're all gone.

每只狼都消失了，它们消灭了灰熊，它们都消失了。

So what's left is fire.

那么剩下的就是火了。

And It's important to understand how fire is perceived at the time.

了解当时如何看待火也很重要。

The public, they fear it because these are wooden towns going up at every railroad stop all over the west.

公众害怕它，因为这些都是木制城镇，在西部的每个火车站都拔地而起。

They really fear it.

他们真的很害怕。

Alfred Runte, Historian: : There were a lot of steam locomotives in the West, and they were passing through these timbered areas causing forest fires.

历史学家阿尔弗雷德·朗特：：西部有很多蒸汽机车，它们经过这些树木繁茂的地区，引发了森林火灾。

Timothy Egan, Author, The Big Burn: : When they come through, sparks go off, and the railroads aren't putting out these fires, they go to the Forest Service and they say "well it's your land, we're only coming through.

蒂莫西·伊根（Timothy Egan），《大燃烧》作者：：当他们经过时，火花四起，而铁路并没有扑灭这些大火，他们去了林务局，他们说“好吧，这是你的土地，我们只是过来。”

You've got to put these things out."

你必须把这些东西拿出来。”

Steve Pyne, Author: : You don't have roads, you don't have trails, it may take you a couple days to even find a fire.

史蒂夫·派恩（Steve Pyne），作者：：你没有道路，没有小径，甚至可能要花几天时间才能找到火。

I mean the thought that these rangers could even begin to cope with this, it just staggers the imagination.

我的意思是，想到这些护林员甚至可以开始应对这种情况，这简直令人难以置信。

What were they thinking of?

他们在想什么？

Timothy Egan, Author, The Big Burn: : Firefighting was a very, very primitive science.

蒂莫西·伊根（Timothy Egan），《大烧伤》作者：：消防是一门非常非常原始的科学。

They were learning as they went along

他们边走边学习

Michael Kodas, Writer: : The only way to fight fires in 1910 was with hand tools.

Michael Kodas，作家： 1910 年，灭火的唯一方法是使用手动工具。

You basically were in there with an axe or a hoe or a rake or ya know whatever you could get your hands on.

你基本上拿着斧头、锄头、耙子或者你知道你能拿到的任何东西。

Steve Pyne, Author: : You were building what we would call a fire line now.

史蒂夫·派恩（Steve Pyne），作者：：你现在正在建造我们所说的火线。

You're cutting a path, clearing it of all debris.

你正在开辟一条道路，清除其中的所有碎片。

Some parts say three or four feet would be completely down to mineral soil so no fire could cross.

有些地方说，三到四英尺将完全埋在矿质土壤中，这样火就不会蔓延。

This is just brutal grunt labor.

这只是残酷的苦役。

You're just digging, chopping, scraping, and moving on.

你只需挖掘、砍伐、刮擦，然后继续前进。

Narrator: : As primitive as fire fighting was at the turn of the century, Gifford Pinchot believed it was an essential part of his new department's mission.

旁白：尽管消防在世纪之交还很原始，但吉福德·平肖相信这是他的新部门使命的重要组成部分。

Fire threatened the nation's timber, the very resource he and his rangers existed to protect, and they had to extinguish it at all costs.

火灾威胁着国家的木材，而这正是他和他的护林员所要保护的资源，他们必须不惜一切代价将其扑灭。

But Pinchot had another reason to embrace a war against fire.

但平肖还有另一个理由支持与火的战争。

He saw in it the key to his organization's survival.

他从中看到了组织生存的关键。

Ever since the creation of the Forest Service, timber and mining barons -- many of whom also had seats in Congress -- had attempted to slash the agency's staff and budget at every turn, determined to starve it out of existence.

自从林业局成立以来，木材和矿业大亨——其中许多人还在国会拥有席位——每次都试图削减该机构的人员和预算，决心让该机构挨饿。

Pinchot needed a weapon to fight back.

平肖需要武器来反击。

Alfred Runte, Historian: : Gifford Pinchot understands how dramatic fire is if you have something dramatic, then you can find a reason for the U.S Forest Service to exist.

阿尔弗雷德·朗特（Alfred Runte），历史学家：吉福德·平肖（Gifford Pinchot）了解火灾的严重性，如果你有一些戏剧性的事情，那么你就能找到美国林务局存在的理由。

Pinchot argues well, "Who's going to protect these lands if we don't?

平肖说得好：“如果我们不保护这些土地，谁来保护呢？

The railroads aren't protecting them, we have to protect them."

铁路没有保护他们，我们必须保护他们。”

Steve Pyne, Author: : Pinchot is very smart, perceptive, well educated, but he was also deeply political, and he knew that fire was the most graphic and simplest way to convey the message about forest destruction and the need for some kind of organized protection.

史蒂夫·派恩（Steve Pyne），作者：平肖非常聪明、有洞察力、受过良好教育，但他也具有深厚的政治色彩，他知道火灾是传达有关森林破坏和需要某种有组织的保护的信息的最生动、最简单的方式。

Narrator: : In speeches, articles, and testimony in front of Congress, Pinchot made his case in starkly moral terms.

旁白：：在国会面前的演讲、文章和证词中，平肖以赤裸裸的道德术语阐述了自己的观点。

"The question of forest fires, like the question of slavery, may be shelved for a time, at enormous cost in the end, but sooner or later, it must be faced."

“森林火灾问题，就像奴隶制问题一样，可能会被搁置一段时间，最终付出巨大代价，但迟早必须面对它。”

Timothy Egan, Author: : He stakes everything on the idea that man can control fire.

蒂莫西·伊根（Timothy Egan），作者：：他将一切都押在人类可以控制火的想法上。

Though they'd never fought a fire before.

尽管他们以前从未救过火。

That's what's so interesting.

这就是有趣的地方。

The Forest Service is only five years old in 1910.

1910 年，林业局成立仅 5 年。

They have never fought a big fire.

他们从未扑灭过大火。

And it's almost like he's asking for it.

这几乎就像是他自找的。

It's almost like hubris.

这几乎就像傲慢。

Nature, bring it on.

自然，来吧。

Narrator: : By the early summer of 1910, Bill Greeley was sleepless with worry.

From his headquarters in Missoula he was monitoring the millions of acres under his control, and everywhere the news was bad.

他在米苏拉的总部监视着他控制下的数百万英亩土地，到处都是坏消息。

1908 had been a very dry year, and 1909, worse still, but nothing could have prepared the Forest Service for the drought that befell the Northern Rockies in 1910.

1908 年是非常干旱的一年，1909 年情况更糟，但林务局根本无法为 1910 年降临北落基山脉的干旱做好准备。

Timothy Egan, Author: : It's a dry summer.

蒂莫西·伊根 (Timothy Egan)，作者：：这是一个干燥的夏天。

It'd been a wet, snowy spring, but then, a switch went off in May, and it did not rain.

那是一个潮湿多雪的春天，但五月开关坏了，没有下雨。

All of May, no rain.

整个五月，没有下雨。

All of June, no rain.

整个六月，没有下雨。

All of July, no rain.

整个七月，没有下雨。

The forest is tinder dry.

森林很干燥。

You walk over the thing, it's like potato chips crinkling walking on the ground.

你从那东西上走过，就像薯片在地上踩皱一样。

Narrator: : In a cable to his men, Greeley implored them to "strengthen the patrol, and retain a strong guard," the humidity he warned, "had dropped to the level of the Mojave Desert."

旁白：：在发给部下的电报中，格里利恳求他们“加强巡逻，保留强有力的警卫”，他警告说，湿度“已降至莫哈韦沙漠的水平”。

For many of the new rangers, fresh from their elite universities, the drought-stricken terrain of Montana and Idaho felt like an alien world.

对于许多刚从精英大学毕业的新护林员来说，蒙大拿州和爱达荷州遭受干旱的地形感觉就像一个陌生的世界。

Not so for Ed Pulaski.

艾德·普拉斯基则不然。

He was two decades older than most of the others, having roamed the West since he was 16, working as a master carpenter and blacksmith, a plumber, millworker and steamfitter, mining for copper in Montana and silver in Idaho.

他比其他大多数人年长二十岁，从 16 岁起就开始在西部漫游，担任木匠和铁匠大师、水管工、磨坊工人和蒸汽安装工，在蒙大拿州开采铜，在爱达荷州开采银矿。

Timothy Egan, Author: : He'd kicked around all over, he's middle aged, he's sort of washed up, but he's a man of all trades.

蒂莫西·伊根（Timothy Egan），作者：：他到处乱踢，他已经是中年了，有点没落了，但他是个多才多艺的人。

He's, he's a man of the people too.

他也是，他也是一个人民的好人。

He, you know, really relates to folks.

你知道，他与人相处得很融洽。

He's done everything a western man will do at that time.

他做了当时西方人会做的一切。

Narrator: : Although he lacked a formal education from back East, Pulaski had mastered the curriculum of the forest -- he knew the mountains in his bones, and knew how to survive in the wilderness.

旁白：：虽然缺乏来自东方的正规教育，普拉斯基却掌握了森林的课程——他骨子里了解山脉，知道如何在荒野中生存。

He was a man of few words, but when he spoke, the locals learned to listen.

Steve Pyne, Author: : In 1908 Pulaski joined the Forest Service, and became the ranger at Wallace.

史蒂夫·派恩 (Steve Pyne)，作者： 1908 年，普拉斯基加入林务局，并成为华莱士的护林员。

He was on his second marriage with Emma.

他与艾玛第二次结婚。

They adopted a daughter named Elsie, who was seven or eight at the time.

他们收养了一个女儿，名叫埃尔西，当时她七八岁。

So, he's a settled guy.

所以，他是一个安分守己的人。

He's got a house in town and he's responsible for what happens in the field.

他在城里有一所房子，他对田间发生的事情负责。

Narrator: : Late in the evening of July 26th, 1910, Ed Pulaski awoke to hear the heavens unleash a deafening, almost continuous volley of thunder.

旁白： 1910 年 7 月 26 日深夜，艾德·普拉斯基 (Ed Pulaski) 醒来，听到天空中发出震耳欲聋、几乎连续不断的雷声。

It was what he had feared most, a violent electrical storm -- bolt after bolt of lightning, and no rain.

By the next morning, nearly 1,000 fires were burning across 22 National Forests in the Northern Rockies.

The blazes threatened the string of railroad towns that extended westward from Missoula, ending with the miserable collection of tents and tarpaper shacks that constituted Taft.

大火威胁到了从米苏拉向西延伸的一系列铁路城镇，最后以塔夫脱的帐篷和防水纸棚屋为主。

On the Idaho side of the Bitterroots, along the southern spur of the railroad, the hardscrabble hamlet of Avery looked vulnerable, as did Wallace, the biggest town in the region to the North.

在比特鲁茨的爱达荷州一侧，沿着铁路的南支线，埃弗里这个贫困的小村庄看起来很脆弱，北部地区最大的城镇华莱士也是如此。

With only 160 rangers in the field, the biggest test of the new Forest Service was at hand, but as the Little G.P's rushed to marshal their forces, they did so without the help of their founder and leader.

现场只有 160 名护林员，新林务局面临的最大考验即将到来，但当小 G.P 匆忙集结他们的部队时，他们是在没有创始人和领导者帮助的情况下完成的。

Gifford Pinchot had been fired.

吉福德·平肖被解雇了。

The Forest Service chief had clashed repeatedly with Theodore Roosevelt's successor William Howard Taft, convinced that the new president lacked the appropriate commitment to the conservationist crusade.

这位林务局局长多次与西奥多·罗斯福的继任者威廉·霍华德·塔夫脱发生冲突，认为新总统缺乏对环境保护主义运动的适当承诺。

Finally, their quarrels became so contentious and so public, that Taft had no choice but to force Pinchot to step aside.

最后，他们的争吵变得如此激烈和公开，以至于塔夫脱别无选择，只能迫使平肖下台。

The day after his dismissal, Pinchot had arrived at the agency's office in Washington, to find his organization in shock.

被解雇的第二天，平肖特来到该机构位于华盛顿的办公室，发现他的组织感到震惊。

Trying to rally the faithful he proclaimed, "You are engaged in a piece of work that lies at the foundation of the new patriotism of conservation...

为了团结信徒，他宣称：“你们所从事的工作是新环境保护爱国主义的基础......

don't let the spirit of the service decline one-half inch...

stay in the service, stick to the work." He was greeted with a thunderous ovation.

坚守岗位，坚守工作岗位。”他受到了雷鸣般的掌声欢迎。

Back in the Northern Rockies, however, the rangers urgently needed men on the ground.

But men willing to fight fires were in short supply.

John N.

约翰·N.

Maclean, Writer: : In the summer of 1910 you had a Forest Service that only had fewer then 500 rangers nation wide, but they knew that they were going to get in a lot of trouble that summer, and so they opened the coffers and they said, "Go out and hire everybody you can find."

作家麦克莱恩：1910 年夏天，林务局在全国范围内只有不到 500 名护林员，但他们知道那年夏天他们会遇到很多麻烦，所以他们打开金库说：“出去雇用你能找到的所有人。”

Timothy Egan, Author: : The forest rangers assembled an army of men, most of them immigrants.

They paid them 25 cents an hour, and immigrants came from all over.

They are putting out the call.

他们正在发出呼吁。

"We're gonna fight this thing.

“我们要对抗这件事。

We are going to attack these hundreds of fires." It's a hundred degrees, it's dry, it's dusty.

我们将扑灭这数百处火灾。”气温有一百度，干燥，灰尘多。

It's on really tough vertical terrain.

它位于非常艰难的垂直地形上。

A lot of people, suffered injuries they quit, they mutinied.

At one point they literally said "Men, men, men." They they opened the jails of Missoula, Montana; they let felons out, convicted murderers.

At one point they literally said "Men, men, men."他们开放了蒙大拿州米苏拉的监狱；他们释放重罪犯、被定罪的杀人犯。

Some guys who had their handcuffs on when they were sent out to the front lines.

So, any male with a pulse was thrown against this fire.

Narrator: : By early August, Bill Greeley had managed to assemble as many as 4,000 men on the fire lines, but with new blazes breaking out all the time, the local labor pool was quickly exhausted, and a call went out to Washington for help.

旁白：到八月初，比尔·格里利已经设法在火线上集结了多达 4,000 名人员，但随着新的火灾不断爆发，当地的劳动力很快就耗尽了，于是他向华盛顿求助。

President Taft at first resisted the idea of committing federal resources to the West, but the situation in the Rockies became so dire, and the press criticism of his dithering so unrelenting, that on August 7th he finally decided to act.

塔夫脱总统起初拒绝向西方提供联邦资源，但落基山脉的局势变得如此严峻，而媒体对他犹豫不决的批评如此无情，以至于8月7日他终于决定采取行动。

Charles E.

查尔斯·E.

Williams, Buffalo Soliders National Museum: : Taft realized that if he didn't do something he was going to get blamed for a huge loss of life, not to mention property.

威廉姆斯，布法罗士兵国家博物馆：：塔夫脱意识到，如果他不采取行动，他将因巨大的生命损失而受到指责，更不用说财产损失了。

So he authorized the Secretary of War to put the army in.

Narrator: : Taft sent a total of 4,000 thousand troops to the Rockies, including seven companies from the 25th Infantry, known as the Buffalo Soldiers.

旁白：塔夫脱总共向落基山脉派遣了400万军队，其中包括被称为“布法罗士兵”的第25步兵团的7个连。

The town of Wallace Idaho had never seen anything like them.

爱达荷州华莱士镇从未见过这样的东西。

Charles E.

查尔斯·E.

Williams, Buffalo Soliders National Museum: : The Buffalo soldiers were the first African American men to serve as peacetime soldiers in the professional army.

威廉姆斯，布法罗士兵国家博物馆：布法罗士兵是第一批在和平时期在职业军队中服役的非裔美国男子。

They served all over the American southwest.

他们的服务遍及美国西南部。

They protected railroad workers and fought Indians, you name it they did it.

他们保护铁路工人并与印第安人作战，凡是你能想到的，他们都做到了。

Timothy Egan, Author: : This is the first time they were ever sent to fight a fire.

And they are sent to a very white area, almost doubling the black population of the state of Idaho.

他们被送到一个非常白人的地区，几乎是爱达荷州黑人人口的两倍。

And so when this all black platoon comes and sets up camp, people scoff at 'em, people say racist things about them.

The newspapers say they play cards and drink all night.

They say, "What can a black man know about possibly fighting a fire?" But it turns out, what happened with the Buffalo Soldiers is a tale that should go down in American military history.

Narrator: : By the second week of August, another electrical storm had more than doubled the number of fires, to 2,500.

旁白：：到 8 月第二周，另一场雷暴使火灾数量增加了一倍多，达到 2,500 起。

But, with thousands of firefighters and soldiers now assembled to fight them, the Little GPs had reason to hope they might prevail -- if only the fall rains would arrive in time.

但是，随着数千名消防员和士兵集结起来与他们战斗，小全科医生有理由希望他们能够获胜——只要秋雨能及时到来就好了。

Timothy Egan, Author: : The forest rangers, they're feeling pretty good.

蒂莫西·伊根 (Timothy Egan)，作者：：护林员，他们感觉很好。

They're feeling like, "We've tackled most of these fires.

他们的感觉是，“我们已经解决了大部分火灾。

We've contained most of them.

我们已经控制住了其中的大部分。

No towns have been destroyed.

没有城镇被摧毁。

No lives have been lost." They still feel like, as Pinchot said, "Man himself can control fire." They still feel like they're gonna win this thing.

没有人丧生。” They still feel like, as Pinchot said, "Man himself can control fire." They still feel like they're gonna win this thing.

Narrator: : For weeks, Ed Pulaski had been riding up and down a ridgeline in the Coeur d'Alene forest of Northern Idaho, trying to keep his men under control as they hacked fire lines through the brush.

旁白：几个星期以来，艾德·普拉斯基一直在爱达荷州北部科达伦森林的山脊线上骑行，试图在他的士兵穿过灌木丛砍伐火线时控制住他们。

Timothy Egan, Author: : Pulaski is with some men up on this ridge.

One side of it is this bustling mining town of Wallace, the other side is bustling railroad town of Avery.

Their job is to keep the thing from destroying the towns.

Narrator: : Pulaski had 150 men under his command, and they were a rag-tag group, with only a handful of experienced woodsmen among them.

旁白：普拉斯基麾下有一百五十人，都是一群乌合之众，其中只有少数有经验的樵夫。

After days of backbreaking labor in the intense heat, his crew was exhausted.

Timothy Egan, Author: : Smoke comes and settles in the valleys where the towns are.

It's all around you.

它就在你周围。

The air is still, but you can't see more than 20 feet ahead of yourself.

空气静止，但你看不到前方 20 英尺以外的地方。

Narrator: : As night began to fall and in pressing need of supplies, Pulaski headed back to Wallace.

Despite everything he had done, he was still worried the town was going to burn.

On the morning of August 20th, after spending a few precious hours with Emma and Elsie, Pulaski reminded them of their escape plan to the reservoir, then led a mule-team with supplies back up the West Fork of Placer Creek, past hillsides pock-marked with old mineshafts and abandoned tunnels, now barely visible in the thick smoke.

8 月 20 日早上，在与艾玛和埃尔西度过了宝贵的几个小时后，普拉斯基提醒他们前往水库的逃生计划，然后带领一队骡子带着物资返回普莱瑟溪的西叉，经过布满麻痕的旧矿井和废弃隧道的山坡，现在在浓烟中几乎看不见。

By late afternoon a soft breeze began to sway the tops of the white pine and spruce.

下午晚些时候，微风开始摇曳白松和云杉的树顶。

By 5p.m.

下午 5 点

it had freshened to 20 miles per-hour, then 30, and suddenly hurricane force winds of 70 miles per hour were hurtling out of the West, fanning the flames of thousands of fires like an enormous bellows, merging everything into one gigantic blaze.

风速已升至每小时 20 英里，然后是每小时 30 英里，突然，每小时 70 英里的飓风从西方呼啸而出，像巨大的风箱一样煽动着成千上万的火焰，将一切融合成一场巨大的大火。

The Big Burn had begun.

大燃烧已经开始。

Timothy Egan, Author: : The number one goal when the thing blows up is to save the towns.

Biggest of those is Wallace.

其中最大的是华莱士。

Wallace is a town set at the bottom of a narrow valley.

华莱士是一座位于狭窄山谷底部的小镇。

So as this fusillade of giant embers come down, one of them hits one of the newspapers there, the press solvents that are used to put out the newspaper.

因此，当这一系列巨大的余烬落下时，其中一颗击中了那里的一份报纸，即用于印制报纸的新闻溶剂。

And the thing goes up in a boom.

事情发展得很顺利。

It then hits a brewery.

然后它袭击了一家啤酒厂。

The brewery goes up in a ball.

啤酒厂呈球状上升。

The mayor declares martial law.

市长宣布戒严。

It's utter panic.

这是彻底的恐慌。

There's one train left that's going to get out.

还剩一趟火车要开出。

It's going to go west to Spokane, 109 miles away.

它将向西前往 109 英里外的斯波坎。

Charles E.

查尔斯·E.

Williams, Buffalo Soliders National Museum: The idea was to take the elderly women and children and put them on the train and have the men remain and fight the fire.

威廉姆斯，布法罗士兵国家博物馆：我们的想法是把老年妇女和儿童带到火车上，让男人留下来救火。

But, a lot of these upstanding men tried to nudge their way onto the train.

But in most cases they were met with a soldier with a bayonet who said, "No sir, you're going to have to stay and help fight this fire."

但在大多数情况下，他们会遇到一名拿着刺刀的士兵，这名士兵说：“不，长官，你必须留下来帮忙救火。”

Narrator: : "Words cannot depict the horror of that night," recalled one witness, "the train whistles were screaming, the heavy boom of falling trees...

旁白：“言语无法描述那天晚上的恐怖，”一位目击者回忆道，“火车汽笛尖叫，树木倒下时发出沉重的轰鸣声......

the buildings...

建筑物...

swaying and steaming from the heat."

因热气而摇曳、冒着热气。”

As glowing cinders had begun to cascade around their house, Emma Pulaski had taken her daughter Elsie and fled to the rock pile by the edge of the reservoir, just as Ed had instructed.

当炽热的煤渣开始在他们的房子周围倾泻而下时，艾玛·普拉斯基带着她的女儿埃尔西，按照埃德的指示逃到了水库边缘的岩石堆上。

The flames were leaping from one mountain to the other, encircling Wallace in a ring of fire.

火焰从一座山蹿到另一座山，将华莱士包围成一圈火环。

Somewhere in that terrifying whirlwind was her husband.

在那可怕的旋风中的某个地方，有她的丈夫。

"Ask God to save daddy and his men," she told her daughter.

“祈求上帝拯救爸爸和他的手下，”她告诉女儿。

Narrator: : The Big Burn swept eastward across the Rocky Mountains, picking up speed, consuming everything in its path.

旁白：大燃烧向东横扫落基山脉，速度加快，吞噬了沿途的一切。

Timothy Egan, Author: : When this thing blew up and moved its way up into the Bitterroots and bounced around in these peaks, it became a weather system of it's own.

蒂莫西·伊根（Timothy Egan），作者：：当这个东西爆炸并向上移动到苦根并在这些山峰上弹跳时，它就成为了自己的天气系统。

It is a beast in search of oxygen it is a beast in search of fuel.

它是一头寻找氧气的野兽，它是一头寻找燃料的野兽。

Steve Pyne, Author: : The fire is drafting in on its own winds, sucking it in like a kind of hurricane.

史蒂夫·派恩 (Steve Pyne)，作者：：火势顺着自己的风卷入，像飓风一样将其吸入。

Trees are just tossed down, jack-strawed in circles.

树木被抛倒，用稻草围成圈。

Narrator: : Moving as fast as a horse could run, the fire was a cauldron of gases and explosive heat, a convection engine, pulling air into its vortex and shooting it skyward, a relentless wall of incendiary mayhem.

旁白：：火的移动速度就像马跑一样快，它是一锅气体和爆炸性的热量，是一个对流发动机，将空气拉入漩涡并将其射向天空，一堵无情的燃烧混乱之墙。

John N.

约翰·N.

Maclean, Writer: : With only a handful of experienced leaders and a handful of experienced woodsmen you're in a catastrophe.

麦克莱恩，作家：：只有少数经验丰富的领导者和经验丰富的伐木工人，你就陷入了一场灾难。

Narrator: : Up in the forests above Wallace, Pulaski and his men were suddenly face to face with a firestorm.

旁白：：在华莱士上方的森林中，普拉斯基和他的部下突然遭遇了一场大火。

Steve Pyne, Author: : Ed Pulaski comes out of Wallace with his pack string of supplies, finds people scattered all over the hillside up in the ridge top where he left them, and realizes that they're in deep trouble.

史蒂夫·派恩（Steve Pyne），作者：艾德·普拉斯基（Ed Pulaski）带着一包物资从华莱士出来，发现人们散布在他留下的山坡上的山脊顶部，并意识到他们陷入了严重的麻烦。

Narrator: : Confronting a wall of flame racing towards them in the gathering darkness, all thought of opposition evaporated, and the men began to panic.

旁白：面对在越来越浓的黑暗中向他们扑来的火墙，所有反对的想法都烟消云散，人们开始恐慌。

Firebrands whistled through the forest.

火把呼啸着穿过森林。

The wind staggered them.

风吹得他们摇摇晃晃。

Huge trees came crashing down on all sides.

巨大的树木从四面八方倒塌下来。

Then, one firefighter remembered, "out of the smoke came Pulaski, waving his arms, hollering 'Come on!

然后，一名消防员回忆道，“普拉斯基从烟雾中走了出来，挥舞着双臂，大喊‘加油！

Come on!

来吧！

Follow me.'"

跟我来。’”

Timothy Egan, Author: : This thing is coming toward them really quickly.

蒂莫西·伊根 (Timothy Egan)，作者：：这件事很快就向他们袭来。

People fall behind, people get injured, people get burned, people get stepped on.

人们落后了，人们受伤了，人们被烧伤了，人们被踩了。

Embers, giant embers coming down.

余烬，巨大的余烬落下。

It's like artillery coming down.

就如同大炮轰然落下。

Narrator: : Pulaski led his 44 men through the inferno, until, at last, he came to one of the old mining shafts along the creek.

旁白：普拉斯基带领他的 44 个人穿过地狱，最后来到了小溪沿岸的一处旧矿井。

"In here," he ordered, his hand on his sidearm, "everyone inside the tunnel."

“在这里，”他命令道，手放在手枪上，“隧道里的所有人。”

Timothy Egan, Author: : They're in this tunnel and they see this wall of flames creeping toward them while they're cowering.

蒂莫西·伊根（Timothy Egan），作者：：他们在这条隧道里，当他们畏缩时，他们看到这堵火墙正在向他们蔓延。

This fire is consuming oxygen, but to leave the cave, is certain death.

这火虽然消耗氧气，但离开山洞，就是必死无疑。

They think this is the end.

他们认为这就是结局。

Narrator: : In desperation, Pulaski soaked some blankets in water from the floor of the cave, and hung them across the entrance, but the flames seared his hands, and the superheated air scorched his lungs.

旁白：无奈之下，普拉斯基从洞底的水中浸湿了几条毯子，挂在洞口，但火焰灼伤了他的双手，过热的空气也烧焦了他的肺部。

Behind him, the men crammed together in the intense heat and darkness, struggling to find enough air.

在他身后，人们在酷热和黑暗中挤在一起，努力寻找足够的空气。

Steve Pyne, Author: : One guy says, "To hell with this, I'm getting out of here," and starts to leave.

And Pulaski pulls his pistol, and threatens to shoot anybody who leaves.

普拉斯基拔出手枪，威胁要射杀任何离开的人。

Timothy Egan, Author: : Pulaski has done everything he can to save this crew.

蒂莫西·伊根（Timothy Egan），作者：：普拉斯基已竭尽全力来拯救这群船员。

Burned all over his face.

整个脸都被烧伤了。

His hands, skin's peeled off on his hands.

他的手，手上的皮都剥了。

And he passes out at the head of this cave.

他在这个山洞的尽头昏倒了。

John N.

约翰·N.

Maclean, Writer: : Once the fire had passed the mine, some of the men started to get up, and they looked at the figure of Pulaski there lying at the mouth and they said, "My god, the boss is dead."

麦克莱恩，作家：火势一过矿井，一些人就开始站起来，他们看着普拉斯基躺在嘴边的身影，他们说：“天啊，老板死了。”

Timothy Egan, Author: : Turns out Pulaski's not dead, he's alive.

蒂莫西·伊根 (Timothy Egan)，作者：：事实证明普拉斯基没有死，他还活着。

Steve Pyne, Author: : He was temporarily blinded.

His lungs were trashed, but he was able to get himself to his feet.

他的肺部已经严重受损，但他能够站起来。

They inspected the cave, five had died, and they had lost one man on the run to the cave.

他们检查了洞穴，发现五人死亡，其中一人在逃往洞穴的过程中丧生。

Narrator: : Barely able to see, Ed Pulaski managed to gather his men together, and they staggered through the still smoldering landscape, down the mountain trail to Wallace.

旁白：埃德·普拉斯基几乎看不见，他设法将他的人聚集在一起，他们摇摇晃晃地穿过仍在闷烧的土地，沿着山路前往华莱士。

Narrator: : As the fiery tempest moved past Pulaski's cave, and bore down on the railroad towns to the East, Bill Greeley was desperate for information about the men under his command.

旁白：当炽热的风暴越过普拉斯基的洞穴，并向东部的铁路城镇袭来时，比尔·格里利迫切希望获得有关他手下人员的信息。

As reports trickled in across telegraph wires, the magnitude of the catastrophe began to become clear.

Eighteen men were incinerated when they took refuge in a settlers cabin; a crew of 28 were battling the blaze near the St. Joe River when firebrands jumped ahead of them and cut them off -- they were never seen again; the gamblers and prostitutes of Taft refused to fight the fire, preferring instead to open up their best kegs of whiskey for one last round of debauchery.

十八名男子在定居者小屋避难时被烧死； 28 名船员正在圣乔河附近与大火搏斗，火把跳到他们前面并切断了他们的联系，从此他们就再也没有出现过；塔夫脱的赌徒和妓女拒绝救火，而是宁愿打开最好的威士忌酒桶，进行最后一轮的放荡。

When the eternal flames did finally arrive, rangers evacuated the drunken revelers, and Taft was consumed in minutes.

当永恒之火最终到来时，护林员疏散了醉酒的狂欢者，塔夫脱在几分钟内就被烧死了。

By the afternoon of August 20th, almost 24 hours into the Big Burn, the railroad town of Avery had been successfully evacuated by the Buffalo Soldiers.

到 8 月 20 日下午，即大烧伤发生近 24 小时后，布法罗士兵已成功疏散铁路小镇艾弗里。

Now, the troops, and the few men left in town, found themselves facing a wall of steadily advancing flames.

现在，部队和城里剩下的少数人发现自己面对着一堵不断蔓延的火墙。

Boarding one last train to the East, they raced across trestles, already ablaze, through a furnace so hot the paint melted off the outside of the railcars.

登上最后一班开往东部的火车，他们飞快地穿过已经着火的栈桥，穿过一座热得连火车车厢外的油漆都融化了的熔炉。

Then, the fire jumped ahead and blocked their way.

With nowhere else to go, they were forced back to Avery.

Charles E.

查尔斯·E.

Williams, Buffalo Soliders National Museum: : They realized, if we can't turn this this fire, it its gonna burn up not only the city, its gonna burn us up too.

威廉姆斯，布法罗士兵国家博物馆：他们意识到，如果我们不能把这把火扑灭，它不仅会烧毁这座城市，也会烧毁我们。

Narrator: : At 11:00 that night, with the conflagration only half a mile away, the Buffalo Soldiers lit a backfire and held their breath.

Steve Pyne, Author: : If you time a fire correctly and you light it in front of the main fire then those flames from the smaller fire will be sucked in.

史蒂夫·派恩（Steve Pyne），作者：：如果你正确地把握生火的时间，并在主火前点燃它，那么小火中的火焰就会被吸入。

John N.

约翰·N.

Maclean, Writer: : If there's no fuel left to burn, there's no place for this fire to go.

The forward motion of it will be stopped.

其向前运动将停止。

Narrator: : "Plunging at each other like two living animals, the flames met with a roar that must have been heard miles away," remembered one ranger.

旁白：“火焰像两只活着的动物一样互相扑向，火焰相遇时发出轰鸣声，几英里外都可以听到，”一位护林员回忆道。

"The tongues of fire seemed to leap up to heaven itself and after an instant's seething, sank to nothingness." Miraculously, Avery was still standing.

"The tongues of fire seemed to leap up to heaven itself and after an instant's seething, sank to nothingness."奇迹般的是，艾弗里仍然站着。

Charles E.

查尔斯·E.

Williams, Buffalo Soliders National Museum: : After the town was saved, newspapers were busy interviewing everybody, and one account in Avery made the comment that, "My whole attitude about the black race has changed as a result of what I've seen and witnessed from these fellows."

威廉姆斯，布法罗士兵国家博物馆：：小镇被拯救后，报纸忙着采访每个人，艾弗里的一个帐户发表评论说，“由于我从这些家伙身上看到和目睹的事情，我对黑人种族的整个态度发生了变化。”

Narrator: : Emma and Elsie Pulaski spent the terrifying night on the rock pile, watching Wallace burn.

As the flames receded and a feeble morning sun tried to burn through the smoke and haze, they trudged back towards town.

The entire eastern side of Wallace was a smoking ruin, but their house, to their amazement, was still standing.

Then Emma heard that a man had staggered out of the mountains with the news that Ed Pulaski, and all his men, had perished.

A few hours later, came another report that Ed was alive, but horribly disfigured and near death.

Finally, around 10 in the morning, Emma looked down the road and saw a man leading someone with bandages on his head and hands.

最后，早上 10 点左右，艾玛朝路上望去，看到一名男子牵着一个人，头上和手上都缠着绷带。

As he walked unsteadily towards her, she recognized the burned and battered face of her husband.

Ed Pulaski had come home.

艾德·普拉斯基回家了。

Timothy Egan, Author: : What finally muffles what's left of the Big Burn, is an early season snowstorm.

Snow can happen anytime in the Rocky Mountains, but you don't expect it at the end of August, early September.

Steve Pyne, Author: : The crews, the townsfolk, everybody just went out and just sat out in the rain and the snow and just let it wash them over and wash away all the grime and the fear, the horror of the days.

史蒂夫·派恩（Steve Pyne），作者：：工作人员、镇民们，每个人都出去了，坐在雨雪中，让它冲刷他们，洗去所有的污垢、恐惧和这些天的恐怖。

Narrator: : As the atmosphere finally cleared in the Northern Rockies, the true nature of the devastation became apparent.

More than three million acres of forest had burned, and Greeley estimated that a billion dollars worth of timber had been lost.

The winds were so strong, entire sections of the forest had been flattened, huge trees spread out like kindling.

Soot from the fires darkened sunsets as far away as Boston, and a layer of ash blackened the ice in Greenland.

The human toll was equally appalling.

人员伤亡同样令人震惊。

Steve Pyne, Author: : One of the startling things that happened in 1910, were all of the dead firefighters.

There were 78 during the big blow up and this had never happened before.

They had no idea what to do.

他们不知道该怎么办。

There's no worker's comp.

没有工人补偿。

There's nothing to pay for their expenses, there's no burial money.

They simply don't know what to do.

他们根本不知道该怎么办。

Timothy Egan, Author: : The survivors go to these hospitals and they patch 'em up.

But what happens afterwards is horrible.

但之后发生的事情就太可怕了。

One of them commits suicide.

其中一人自杀。

Others die months or a few years later, and they weren't even credited as part of the official casualty toll because their lungs were so badly compromised by how much smoke they breathed in.

其他人则在几个月或几年后死亡，他们甚至没有被计入官方伤亡人数，因为他们吸入的烟雾严重损害了他们的肺部。

They die at 28 - 29 years old from the smoke of the Big Burn, which kills them six months after the fact.

Narrator: : Before the smoke had even cleared from the mountains, the debate over the lessons of the Big Burn began.

Timothy Egan, Author: : Gifford Pinchot has two reactions to it.

The first thing is horror because remember, he said this hubristic thing saying, "Man himself can control fire." Nature has proved him utterly wrong.

The first thing is horror because remember, he said this hubristic thing saying, "Man himself can control fire."大自然证明他完全错了。

So, he's horrified by this thing.

所以，他对这件事感到恐惧。

He's horrified by the loss of life.

他对生命的丧失感到震惊。

But he also has a second reaction.

但他还有第二个反应。

And this is indicative of all great political figures.

Pinchot uses the fire as part of a narrative about American heroes.

That these forest rangers gave their lives, risked everything for public land, for national forests.

And all the newspapers write these stories.

所有的报纸都报道这些故事。

It's one of the first times in our history that firefighters join the pantheon of American heroes.

这是我们历史上第一次消防员加入美国英雄的万神殿。

Steve Pyne, Author: : The critics of the Forest Service would say, "Look, you guys had everything you wanted.

It didn't work.

它不起作用。

We knew it wouldn't work, so you lost." But Pinchot argued that, "No, we just didn't have enough to really give it a full test.

我们知道这行不通，所以你输了。” But Pinchot argued that, "No, we just didn't have enough to really give it a full test.

And we need to honor those who died by seeing their vision completed."

我们需要通过完成他们的愿景来纪念那些死去的人。”

Timothy Egan, Author: : What should have been their lowest ebb turns out to be their creation myth.

蒂莫西·伊根（Timothy Egan），作者：：本应是他们的最低潮，结果却是他们的创造神话。

So much public support arises for the Forest Service and National Forests, that it has the effect of pushing public policy.

林务局和国家森林得到了如此多的公众支持，从而起到了推动公共政策的作用。

What had been a reluctant Congress now gives the Forest Service the resources it needs, doubling the budget, and eventually creates National Forests in the East.

原本不情愿的国会现在向林务局提供了所需的资源，预算增加了一倍，并最终在东部建立了国家森林。

In Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Virginia.

在宾夕法尼亚州、密西西比州、弗吉尼亚州。

Narrator: : As the agency grew under the stewardship of men like William Greeley, putting out fires became almost an institutional obsession.

旁白：随着该机构在威廉·格里利等人的管理下不断发展，扑灭火灾几乎成为机构的一项痴迷。

Timothy Egan, Author: : Nothing affects the culture of the Forest Service more than this fire.

蒂莫西·伊根（Timothy Egan），作者：：没有什么比这场火灾对林务局文化的影响更大了。

They become a sort of municipal fire service of National Forests.

他们成为国家森林的市政消防队。

Narrator: : In the decades after the Big Burn, the agency's uncompromising stand on fire would serve the Forest Service well, but its impact on the National Forests would be fraught with unintended consequences.

旁白：：在大火灾发生后的几十年里，该机构在火灾方面毫不妥协的立场将为林务局带来良好的服务，但它对国家森林的影响将充满意想不到的后果。

Char Miller, Historian: : I think the fundamental dilemma with the fire suppression policy that Pinchot advocated was, in the end, it was the wrong policy for the land.

查尔·米勒（Char Miller），历史学家：我认为平肖所倡导的灭火政策的根本困境在于，归根结底，这对这片土地来说是错误的政策。

It might have been the right policy for the agency, but it's the wrong policy for the environment.

对于该机构来说，这可能是正确的政策，但对于环境来说却是错误的政策。

Michael Kodas, Writer: : Fighting fires in the wilderness was not only futile, but it was really not healthy for the forests.

迈克尔·科达斯（Michael Kodas），作家：：在荒野中扑灭火灾不仅是徒劳的，而且对森林来说确实不健康。

If you have a landscape that normally would burn every 20 years, and you put out every fire in that forest for 100 years, you now have five times more fuel in that forest than you normally would.

如果你有一个通常每 20 年就会燃烧一次的景观，并且你在 100 年内扑灭了该森林中的每一场火灾，那么现在该森林中的燃料比平常多了五倍。

The medicine that we were giving was worse than the disease.

我们给予的药物比疾病更糟糕。

Timothy Egan, Author: : By putting out every fire for a hundred years, they created indirectly, what are now some of the greatest wildfires.

蒂莫西·伊根（Timothy Egan），作者：：通过扑灭一百年来的每一场火灾，他们间接造成了现在最严重的一些野火。

But imagine now, if this fire had not happened.

但现在想象一下，如果这场火灾没有发生的话。

They might have killed the Forest Service.

他们可能杀死了林务局。

And with it would've gone the idea that's so embraced by a majority of Americans' today, that we have more than 500 million acres that is all of ours, that belongs to each of us.

随之而来的是当今大多数美国人所拥护的观念，即我们拥有超过 5 亿英亩的土地，这是我们所有人的，属于我们每个人的。

By saving the fledgling idea of conservation, then only a few years old, this fire did save a larger part of America.

通过拯救当时才几年的新兴保护理念，这场火灾确实拯救了美国的大部分地区。

Narrator: : In the end, Ed Pulaski could never escape the Big Burn.

旁白：：最终，艾德·普拉斯基没能逃脱大烧伤。

He lived on with Emma in Wallace, remaining what he had always been -- a quiet man who loved the mountains of the West.

他和艾玛一起住在华莱士，保持着他一直以来的样子——一个热爱西部山区的安静男人。

Crippled by the flames that had seared his eyes and lungs, he kept on working for the Forest Service until 1929, stubbornly petitioning the government for compensation for his wounds, and for money to care for the simple graves of those who had fallen.

火焰灼伤了他的眼睛和肺部，他的身体因此变得残废，但他继续在林业局工作直到 1929 年，顽固地向政府请求赔偿他的伤势，并拨款为倒下的人修建简陋的坟墓。

He also never stopped using his hands, and crafted a tool, with a hoe on one end, and an ax on the other.

It was so perfectly designed, that firefighters around the world never again did battle against a wildfire without what came to be known as a Pulaski by their side.

它的设计如此完美，以至于世界各地的消防员在与野火作战时，再也不会没有 Pulaski 陪伴在身边。

In the summer of 1910, hundreds of wildfires raged across the Northern Rockies.

In 1910, a wildfire burned an area the size of Connecticut and killed at least 78 firefighters in just 36 hours.

At the turn of the 20th century, Gifford Pinchot was the nation's preeminent forester.

Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot saw fighting forest fires as being essential to the new Forest Service's mission.

首席林务员吉福德·平肖 (Gifford Pinchot) 认为扑灭森林火灾对于新林务局的使命至关重要。

After the Big Burn, Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot publicizes the selfless actions of the fire fighters who lost their lives in the blaze.

In the early 1900s, President Theodore Roosevelt worried that unless America's forests were protected and regulated, the nation's forests would soon disappear.

1900 年代初，西奥多·罗斯福总统担心，除非美国的森林得到保护和监管，否则该国的森林很快就会消失。

In the summer of 1910, the Forest Service had less than 500 rangers nationwide.

The Pulaski was created in the years just following the 1910 Big Burn by U.S. Forest Service Ranger Ed Pulaski, and it continues to be used by wildland firefighters to this day.

Pulaski 是由美国林业局护林员 Ed Pulaski 在 1910 年大火灾发生后几年创建的，至今仍被荒地消防员使用。

Though the policies and attitudes towards managing wildfires have evolved over the last century, the destructive power of fire remains constant.

Browse a photo gallery of the men who fought the Big Burn in 1910 and helped make the U.S. Forest Service what it is today.

中文为机器翻译，仅供参考。