2 Killed as Firefighting Helicopters Collide in Greece

© Hellenic Red Cross, via Reuters


© Hellenic Red Cross, via Reuters

The handcrafted leather boots are a century-old tradition – but with money tight, the cost of up to $800 is harder to justify
For 18 years, one of the most important relationships in Luke Mayfield’s life was with his boots. As a hotshot – one of the US’s elite firefighting crews sent deep, on foot, into wildfires – Mayfield hiked a thousand miles a fire season in his boots, stood in them 16 hours a day and slept near them on assignments that lasted weeks in terrain no truck could reach.
Like every wildland firefighter, he learned the rituals of their upkeep: how to grease them, how to lace them, how soon before the season to break in a new pair so the blisters came during training instead of on duty.
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© Photograph: Rajah Bose/The Guardian

© Photograph: Rajah Bose/The Guardian


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Nathan Matthews, 43, died a month after deadly blaze enveloped his fire crew near the Colorado-Utah border
A fourth firefighter has died from burns after he and several colleagues were overcome by a fast-moving wildfire near the Colorado-Utah border last month, officials said on Saturday.
Nathan Matthews, 43, died on Friday, the US interior department said in a release. He was from Lincoln, Nebraska.
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