About Us

Old Men and Fire (OM&F) is a small group of wildland firefighters in the sunset of their career who are still striving to learn about our past and honor those who came before.  They also like to visit interesting places and spend time breaking bread and sharing drink with interesting colleagues.

It all started with Bill Molumby’s long time wish to go see the site of the 1949 Mann Gulch Fire.  At a staff ride in Arizona during February of 2020, Bill talked with Jim Cook about putting a group together for such a visit.  After a few false starts, they recruited a handful of old firefighters to make the trek to Montana and into Mann Gulch.  And in June of 2022, with the historical expertise of Tom Boatner and the logistic work of Ken Kremensky, the wish became a reality. 

At the closeout dinner for that visit, someone made a reference to Norman Maclean’s book Young Men and Fire, and someone else jokingly made the comment that our group should be referred to as Old Men and Fire…and everyone immediately locked onto the label.  Soon the discussion turned to which fire would be next…and so it began.

The Old Men & Fire have no real hierarchy and not much structure, but they do have a mission:

Paying forward by working to make information about historic wildland fires more accessible. 

Honoring the past by working to establish memorials for wildland firefighter fatality fires that have been forgotten.