On August 6, 2000, fire behavior analyst John McColgan happened to be in the right place at the right time, leading him to take what has been called “the most beautiful wildfire picture ever taken.” Captured in Montana on the East Fork of the Bitterroot River on the Sula Complex, Bitterroot National Forest, Elk Bath shows two Rocky Mountain elk standing in a river to escape the raging fire.
McColgan worked for the Alaska Fire Service division of the Bureau of Land Management but was in Montana as part of a cooperative agreement to help control the wildlife. Positioned on a bridge, he took the photo with a Kodak DC280 digital camera. The image quickly went viral, which 24 years ago meant that it was forwarded endlessly via email. Unfortunately, along the way, the information about the photographer was lost until a local reporter made calls in order to discover who took the image.
The reporter, Rob Chaney of the Missoulian, then interviewed McColgan about the experience, offering valuable insight into what he experienced that day.
“That's a once-in-a-lifetime look there,” McColgan shared. “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I've been doing this for 20 years and it ranks in the top three days of fire behavior I've seen.”
People who looked at the photo were rightly startled about the safety of the animals as flames that were estimated to reach up to 800°F raged around them. However, McColgan explained that the wildlife was keenly aware of where to wait out the fire, with many gathering by the river. In fact, he was even joined by one, telling Chaney, “a small deer was standing right underneath me, under the bridge.”
The photo later went on to be named one of Time‘s Photographs of the Year for 2000. As it was taken while McColgan was a Forest Service firefighter, it landed in the public domain, meaning that he wasn't able to profit from it.
At the time, he said that it was all right with him. “I've got a stack of eight phone messages today asking about it. I couldn't have profited from it, so I guess I'm glad so many people are enjoying it.”
h/t: [PetaPixel]
