More than a century after a catastrophic wildfire tore through the Northwest, the tool born from that disaster remains the gold standard of wildfire suppression — and its origins trace directly to Wallace, Idaho.
The Pulaski, a dual-purpose hand tool combining an ax on one side and a grubbing blade on the other, was designed and built by Ed Pulaski, a ranger assigned to the Wallace Ranger District in Shoshone County. Pulaski developed the tool in the aftermath of the devastating 1910 fires, a catastrophic series of blazes that consumed millions of acres across the Northwest and fundamentally reshaped how the nation approached wildfire management.
A Tool Born From Disaster
The 1910 fires — sometimes called the Big Blowup — remain one of the most destructive wildfire events in American history. The destruction exposed the limitations of the equipment available to early firefighters and pushed men like Ed Pulaski to find better solutions. The result was a tool so well-conceived that more than a hundred years of technological advancement has done virtually nothing to improve upon it.
The design is deceptively simple: the ax side of the Pulaski chops through trees and branches, while the grubbing tool side cuts through roots and scrapes earth down to mineral soil. That combination allows firefighting crews to dig fire lines and construct fuel breaks with a single implement, eliminating the need to carry or switch between multiple tools while working in rugged, often steep terrain. For crews battling blazes across mountainous regions like the Silver Valley, where rough topography can make equipment management a matter of survival, that efficiency matters enormously.
Retired smokejumper Bob Beckley put it plainly: “The Pulaski is really the most efficient tool for fighting fire.”
Still Standard Issue More Than a Century Later
What is perhaps most remarkable about the Pulaski is not just that it works, but that it has remained essentially unchanged since Pulaski first crafted it. New firefighting technology has come and gone — from aircraft to retardant systems to sophisticated thermal imaging — but nearly every wildland firefighting hand crew in the country still goes into the field with a Pulaski at the front of the line.
Russell Long of the U.S. Forest Service offered a simple explanation for the tool’s enduring relevance: “Not many things on this earth that they got right the first time.”
Crews routinely use Pulaskis for up to 12 hours a day during active fire suppression operations, meaning the tools take an enormous amount of punishment over the course of a fire season. To keep them in service, used Pulaskis are collected, refurbished, and resharpened at the National Interagency Fire Center in South Boise, where they are returned to service for the next crew that needs them.
The tool’s reach has also extended well beyond American borders. Fire crews in Australia and other nations battling wildland fires have adopted the Pulaski, cementing its status as a genuinely global firefighting standard.
Wallace’s Place in Firefighting History
For Shoshone County residents, the Pulaski represents more than a piece of equipment — it is a tangible piece of local heritage. Wallace has long occupied a significant place in the history of the American West, shaped by its mining roots, its role in early labor history, and its position at the heart of some of the nation’s most storied wildfire events. The Silver Valley’s complicated legacy encompasses both industrial achievement and hard lessons about the cost of extraction and environmental impact, and the story of the 1910 fires fits squarely within that broader narrative of a region forged by fire, literally and figuratively.
The fact that a ranger working out of Wallace developed a tool now carried by firefighters on multiple continents speaks to the ingenuity that has always characterized this corner of northern Idaho.
What Comes Next
As wildfire seasons continue to intensify across the American West, demand for trained wildland firefighting crews — and the tools they carry — shows no signs of slowing. The Pulaski, born from the ashes of 1910 and refined right here in Shoshone County, will almost certainly remain at the center of that effort. The National Interagency Fire Center continues its refurbishment work to keep existing tools in circulation, ensuring that Ed Pulaski’s century-old innovation remains ready for whatever fire season brings next.