A helicopter fire in Russia led a billionaire to give away 98% of his wealth

In the summer of 1998, businessman Mitch Rales stood beside a small bubble helicopter in a remote Russian village while a man lugged a heavy fuel line up to top off the tank.

Rales had flown with three close friends into Murmansk, a northern naval city of roughly 400,000 residents then known as the base of the Russian Navy fleet, for Atlantic salmon fishing. When a hot spell killed the fishing, and four days brought not a nibble, the group chartered a small bubble helicopter to take them out early for the trip back to explore the town.

The helicopter could not make the hour and a half flight without refueling, so it set down in a village that lived by herding reindeer and catching salmon. As the men were getting out, the fuel nozzle came loose and started spitting fuel into the rotor blades. The aircraft ignited and then melted to the ground.

The spraying fuel doused Rales's friend Joe Robert, who was standing about three feet away. Spared the fuel, Rales said he "dove into a pit and ran away on all fours." The man doing the refueling died after being soaked in fuel.

Rales, a businessman who became a major giver, says he dates his philanthropy to that fire. He has since signed the Giving Pledge, a public promise by wealthy people to give away most of their money, with his wife Emily, committing 98% of their wealth for the benefit of mankind.

Escape was not simple. It was 1998, and there was no cell phone, no satellite phone, and no wired phone line. Rales and his companions tried a World War II set they found in the village but could not get it working, yet a Morse code message calling for help went out anyway. Roughly half a day later, a rescue helicopter arrived and took the four men out.

Rales left Russia wearing shorts and a torn T-shirt, with all his belongings gone. The sandals he had been wearing had melted in the spot where he ran out of them. In a stroke of luck, officials at the airport had kept the Americans' passports on arrival, so the group could still get on a plane out.

When he got home, his father asked him what he had learned: "do you want to be the richest guy in the cemetery?" Rales said no, he was not interested in that.

After that answer, he began asking what he loved and what mattered to him, and because he loved art, he started considering building a museum, an idea that grew stronger in the early 2000s. He says he and his family now try to give money away with the same operating discipline they use to build businesses, checking that dollars are spent wisely and deliver a strong return for the people they are meant to help.