Fireline

Fireline (4:59)
Jim Pipkin 1991 BMI

Jim Pipkin: Guitar, Vocals
Barry McGuire: Harmonica

There's stories about bravery from out of distant time
Fighters standin' strong and tall for causes just and fine
There's not one band of heores deservin' in my mind
Than the Arizona prison crews up on the fire line

Every prison fire crew's made up of volunteers
Trade cellblocks for a training camp that sweats'em into gear
Flash burns on their faces, blisters on their feet
For fifty cents an hours and all the ashes they can eat

Nineteen hundred ninety was the year the creeks ran dry
Sun baked Arizona from a blue and cloudless sky
Hottest year recorded since the white man settled here
Four years of drought before it - the mountain people feared

Have you ever had a nightmare where a monster chased you down
Seems you can't move fast enough, your feet just won't gain ground
Wildfire skips the treetops faster than a horse can run
Touches down just like a dragon, leavin' black coals when it's done

Eighteen men and women from the Perryville Brigade
Fought the Dude Fire on the Mogollon with chainsaw, axe, and spade
A turn of wind, a twist of fate, and six good lives were gone
They deserve more than a pardon, they deserve more than a song

Arizona's built on courage, hard work sweat and pain
But too often we forget the ones who give so we can gain
Simple thanks won't heal the burns, give back any time
Or feed the families of the prison crews up on the fire line


There's stories about bravery from out of distant time
Fighters standin' strong and tall for causes just and fine
There's not one band of heores deservin' in my mind
Than the Arizona prison crews up on the fire line