Skip to content Renew Subscribe Menu A member of the Avialesookhrana, Russia's aerial firefighting organization, leaps toward Siberia's boreal forest from an An-2 biplane. "The idea of actually parachuting into fires was a Soviet invention," says American wildfire historian Stephen Pyne. "In the 1930s these guys would climb out onto the wing of a plane, jump off, land in the nearest village, and rally the villagers to go fight the fire." Photograph by Mark Thiessen, National Geographic Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. By Glenn Hodges Republished from the pages of National Geographic magazine • 25 min read Share Tweet Email Alexander Selin, the head of central Siberia's aerial firefighting force, is a man who knows how to make himself clear, even in English, a language he barely knows. The police, he tells us, are "garbage." Vodka is "gasoline." His d...