Photographer- Firefighter on Attacking Wildfires

Mark Thiessen: That's right. The western mountains are steep, very steep, you know, we're talking 60 percent grade, 45 percent grade.

Tom Foreman: And you're already, in many cases, at 10, 11, 12,000 feet (3,048 to 3,658 meters) in the air…

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Mark Thiessen: …and if you're a firefighter, you're carrying hoses, all your gear, shovels, chain saws, and you're humping it up and down these slopes, digging fire line all day long. But, you know, before you've even gone into that situation, you've looked at your safety zones and your escape routes.

A lot of people think that the flames are what gets you and it's not. You can always see where the flames are, but once the fire is out, you're mopping up—that means, you know, putting out embers that are smoldering. And, days or weeks later, trees can just come tumbling down without any warning.

Tom Foreman: You were nearly taken out by a boulder.

Mark Thiessen: A boulder the size of a washing machine came running down after some guys went up a hillside and an air tanker dropped a load. But that can happen. The roots have been burned that held that rock in place. And that's where people get killed; where your guard is down.

Tom Foreman: Is it difficult to come to grips with the reality of danger out there after you get used to it?

Mark Thiessen: Yeah, part of wildland fire fighting school, is they teach you not to get complacent. They teach you to always be aware of what's going on around you, and it becomes second nature to look for potential risks that can get you. But there is nothing else like it that has this much adventure and this much fun, because all of these firefighters will tell you they love doing what they're doing, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it.

Inside Base Camp's Tom Foreman on Work, Guests

Presidents and prisoners; scientists and soldiers; the heroic and the hated—all have sat down with National Geographic Channel Senior Anchor Tom Foreman as he has traveled the globe for the past 25 years. Starting out in small town radio in Alabama, he progressed through local television to join ABC Network News when he was 30. For a decade he covered virtually every major news story for World News Tonight, Nightline, 20/20 and Good Morning America.

Now, as host and managing editor of the Emmy Award-winning Inside Base Camp with Tom Foreman, he brings his years of experience—and dozens of riveting guests—to the National Geographic Channel at 12:30 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, and Sundays at 11:00 a.m.

As the show's name implies, Foreman asks the intimate, revealing questions that cut to core of the passions that drive his guests.

Read an interview with Tom Foreman>>

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