Weekly Aggregation

1.24.22

Jan 24, 2022

Hi Y’all,

I am back, and I am sorry it’s been taking so long. Thank you immensely to those of you who have hung in with me. I’ll be sending out an interview on Wednesday but for now here’s what’s going on in wildland fire this week:

A recent report concluded that a decision to defend the Big Sur Fire Station cost the lives of fourteen firefighters.
The federal government is vowing to drastically increase the amount of land being treated with thinning and controlled burning. I feel like a lot of this mess we’re in could have been prevented had they done this ten, or even five years ago, but better late than never? We’ll see how it unfolds.
Kamala Harris, while visiting San Bernardino (where I used to work as a hotshot) announced that California will receive $600 million dollars in disaster relief money to repair and rebuild after several destructive fire seasons.
Aaron Harber wrore an opinion piece about how the Marshall Fire wasn’t a wildland fire but rather a succession of structure fires.
Elizabeth Weil wrote “This Isn’t The California I Married,” which, despite its headline, is actually an excellent piece about fires in California.
The Colorado Fire is currently burning in Big Sur, right near where I used to live. It’s now 35% contained, but winds are hampering further containment efforts. Flame heights are massive, especially given we’ve had a wet winter. This doesn’t bode well for summer.