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Published Wildland Fire Articles
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These articles were originally written for print publication. Several of them are significantly
longer than traditional print feature-length articles. That means that most of them are three to
ten times longer than your average webpage article. You may want to save and print them instead of
trying to read them online.
Neither the webpages nor the RTF files currently contain the graphics that were published with
the articles. As time allows I will add them to the webpages and to the zipped format files.
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If you live in or near a wildland-urban interface zone
(live in or near "the woods"),
or if you have to fight fires in that sort of area then these articles will give you some idea of what you may be
up against yourself some day. |
| WebPage(22kb) | TextOnly(19kb) | Zipped(size) | The Miller's Reach Fire This 1996 Alaskan fire destroyed 454 structures, burned more than 37,000 acres, forced the largest evacuation related to wildland fire in Alaska's history, and changed the way Alaskans look at and protect themselves from the dangers of wildland fire. |
| WebPage(38kb) | TextOnly(35kb) | Zipped(size) | Lessons From the School of Hard Knocks The Long Island Fires of 1995 were some of the most televised in history. This in-depth analysis of those fires offers a clear picture of the good, the bad and the truly ugly in fighting wildfires in the urban interface. |
| WebPage(21kb) | TextOnly(18kb) | Zipped(size) | The Devil in Winter In December, 1997, Alberta, Canada got hit with some of the worst wildfires in its history. Grass fires so intense that even fence posts were burned down into the ground a foot or more.Fires driven so hard by the high winds that the middle of some telephone poles were completely consumed while their tops and bottoms were only scorched. |
| WebPage(12kb) | TextOnly(size) | Zipped(size) | Retreat Was Not an Option Heroic efforts by U.S. Marines save the small Texas border town of Candelaria from a wildfire. |
| WebPage(23kb) | TextOnly(20kb) | Zipped(size) | Fires in British Columbia Wildfires raging through the wildland-urban interface were not the exclusive property of Florida in 1998. The Canadian Province of British Columbia had its share of problems. |
| WebPage(29kb) | TextOnly(26kb) | Zipped(size) | The Port St. Lucie Fire In April of 1999 a firestorm visited the Florida community of Port St. Lucie. This article, subtitled "Anatomy of an Urban Disaster," should be a "must read" for everyone living in Florida, and is well worth the time it takes to read for anyone else living in a wildland urban interface zone. |
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The Florida Fires of 1998
were so extreme that they deserve a section of their own with several articles. Even though these
fires happened in Florida there are lessons to be learned here for everyone. |
| WebPage(18kb) | TextOnly(15kb) | Zipped(size) | So What Was All the Noise About? An Editorial on the Florida fires of 1998. |
| WebPage(29kb) | TextOnly(26kb) | Zipped(size) | Chronology of Florida's 1998 Fires Exactly what is says. |
| WebPage(29kb) | TextOnly(26kb) | Zipped(size) | The Florida Fires of 1998 A critical look at what happened, why it happend, and what people are doing to prevent it from happening again. |
| WebPage(15kb) | TextOnly(12kb) | Zipped(size) | What If It Happens Here? If you think you're safe from the kind of destruction that visited Florida in the summer of 1998, read this and think again. |
| WebPage(22kb) | TextOnly(size) | Zipped(size) | The Keech-Byram Drought Index The stories about Florida wildfires usually contain references to how Florida measures its drought -- the Keech-Byram Drought Index. This short article explains how that index works and what the numbers mean. |
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More stories of fighting fires in Alaska and Canada. |
| WebPage(12kb) | TextOnly(9kb) | Zipped(size) | Fire on Kodiak Island The U.S. Coast Guard teams up with Alaska State firefighters to protect a village on Kodiak Island from an early-season 14,000 acre wildfire. |
| WebPage(21kb) | TextOnly(18kb) | Zipped(size) | The Inowak Fire Alaska is known for large fires. This article looks at how a single lightning strike in a remote part of Southwest Alaska grew into a 500,000+ acre fire. |
| WebPage(16kb) | TextOnly(13kb) | Zipped(size) | Alberta Ablaze U.S. and Canadian firefighters struggle with one of the worst fire seasons in Alberta's history. |
| WebPage(16kb) | TextOnly(13kb) | Zipped(size) | Alberta Ablaze -- The Sequel U.S. and Canadian firefighters continue to struggle with the worst fire season in Alberta history. |
| WebPage(15kb) | TextOnly(12kb) | Zipped(size) | That Ain't a Rock, It's a Mortar Shell Firefighters in Alaska run into unique problems trying to control a wildfire near the Fort Greely artillery range. |
| WebPage(11kb) | TextOnly(size) | Zipped(size) | Busted! U.S. firefighters with police records get detained at the Canadian border. |
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Programs and Training to make firefighters more effective in the wildland-urban interface zone. |
| WebPage(16kb) | TextOnly(13kb) | Zipped(size) | Prescribed Fire Training -- Florida Style Prescribed (controlled) fire is rapidly becoming a primary tool for reducing hazards in the wildland urban interface, but qualified burn bosses are hard to come by. This program is trying to rectify that. |
| WebPage(17kb) | TextOnly(14kb) | Zipped(size) | Florida Forest Rangers Trained in Structural Firefighting This innovative program is a win-win situation for both wildland fire suppression and volunteer structural firefighting in rural parts of Florida. |
| WebPage(12kb) | TextOnly(size) | Zipped(size) | Hazard Mitigation Works In Michigan An experimental hazard mitigation program in Michigan has already paid off big-time. |
| WebPage(25kb) | TextOnly(22kb) | Zipped(size) | C.O.W.S. '98 -- Wildfire Training With a Different Perspective An experimental wildfire training school in Oregon aims to turn structural firefighters into more effective wildland firefighters when they need to work in the wildland urban interface zone. |
| WebPage(24kb) | TextOnly(21kb) | Zipped(size) | C.O.W.S. '99 -- Intense Training for Front-Line Firefighters Now in its second year, the Central Oregon Wildfire School has already proven that it provides effective and much needed wildfire suppression training for structural firefighters. |
| WebPage(18kb) | TextOnly(15kb) | Zipped(size) | Island Fork, Kentucky Fire Takes the Lives of Two Firefighters The events and conditions surrounding this tragic wildfire vividly point out how ill-equipped and poorly trained many rural volunteer fire departments are when it comes to suppressing wildfires. |
| WebPage(12kb) | TextOnly(9kb) | Zipped(size) | Where The Buffalo Roam Cooperative efforts between wildland firefighters on an Oklahoma wildlife refuge and local volunteer fire departments works to everyone's advantage in suppressing both wildland and structural fires. |
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What's it like to be a firefighter?
Check out this collection of stories about fires, firefighting, and firefighters. |
| WebPage(27kb) | TextOnly(24kb) | Zipped(size) | Anatomy of a Forest Fire This essay looks at the events surrounding, and people involved with, a wildfire in Northern Washington State. It also considers the wealth of possible stories about a wildfire that usually go unreported and even unnoticed by the media. |
| WebPage(22kb) | TextOnly(19kb) | Zipped(size) | Sometimes You Get The Bear, Sometimes The Bear Gets You Recalls the bizarre, humorous and heroic events surrounding a rescue from a wildfire in Florida's Everglades. |
| WebPage(17kb) | TextOnly(14kb) | Zipped(size) | Hurricane? What Hurricane? Wildfires in a Louisiana bayou While Eastern Louisiana is being flooded by a hurricane, wildlife refuges in Western Louisiana and East Texas cope with wildfires. |
| WebPage(11kb) | TextOnly(size) | Zipped(size) | It's A Crazy Place To Work Further adventures of wildland fire suppression and use on the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge in Western Louisiana. |
| WebPage(34kb) | TextOnly(32kb) | Zipped(size) | Convict Firefighters Many Western states use prison inmates to suppress wildfires. This survey looks at the programs and the quality of firefighters those programs produce. |
| WebPage(19kb) | TextOnly(16kb) | Zipped(size) | Who Ya Gonna Call? -- Contractor Crews Come of Age Contractor crews have been used for a long time in the West, but in the face of state and federal agency downsizing they are becoming a critical-need resource. |
| WebPage(23kb) | TextOnly(20kb) | Zipped(size) | Contract Crews Facing Extinction in Northwest You don't have to be crazy to be a wildland fire suppression contractor, but it helps. Agency contract practices, training and equipmennt requirements, and a mild fire season can quickly drive contractors into bankruptcy, but there is hope on the horizon. |
| WebPage(13kb) | TextOnly(size) | Zipped(size) | Homage to Hotshots A brief look at why hotshot crews form the backbone of Western wildland fire suppression. |
| WebPage(28kb) | TextOnly(25kb) | Zipped(size) | The Zig Zag Hotshots An up-close-and-personal look at the Zig Zag Interagency Hotshot Crew. Want to know what it's like to be a hotshot? What being a hotshot does to you? Then read this. |
| WebPage(18kb) | TextOnly(15kb) | Zipped(size) | Explosive Fire Conditions At West Point Firefighters get the ultimate in adrenaline rushes when large artillery shells start to cook off at this wildfire on the West Point reservation. |
| WebPage(40kb) | TextOnly(37kb) | Zipped(size) | The Cleveland (Washington) Fire When communications break down things can get really ugly really quickly. In this case livestock paid the price of such a breakdown, and some humans very nearly did as well. |
| WebPage(12kb) | TextOnly(9kb) | Zipped(size) | Cleveland Fire Review Prompts Changes by Washington DNR This Washington DNR press release announces the results of the review and the changes that DNR is taking to prevent future problems. |
| WebPage(31kb) | TextOnly(28kb) | Zipped(size) | The Lowden Ranch Fire When things go wrong at this small Northern California controlled burn, they go wrong big-time. |
| WebPage(29kb) | TextOnly(26kb) | Zipped(size) | Foam on the Range -- Nevada Wildfires Spark Larger Controversy While the firefighters who helped control the Nevada wildfires are heros to local ranchers and farmers, some of the out-of-area Incident Management Teams are definitely NOT. Conflicts in suppression techniques and poor communications with local firefighters almost created more problems than the wildfires did. |
| WebPage(22kb) | TextOnly(19kb) | Zipped(size) | Fire Management In Transition Federal and state fire management is undergoing significant changes brought on by several converging conditions. This essay looks at those conditions and changes. |
| WebPage(20kb) | TextOnly(18kb) | Zipped(size) | "Fire On The Mountain" -- a Preview and Review The deaths of the firefighters on Storm King Mountain had a profound impact on wildland fire suppression in the United States. This is a pre-release preview and a review of this definitive book. |
| WebPage(14kb) | TextOnly(size) | Zipped(size) | Great (But Dumb) Ideas in Wildland Fire Suppression Every once in a while someone comes up with an idea on how to suppress wildfires that cries out to be shared with a wide audience. This is a collection of some of those ideas. |
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