Fighting wildfires is hellish work. It’s even worse under Trump
Trump administration’s climate denial is now colliding with its quest to shrink and incapacitate the federal workforce. Federal firefighters—spread across government land management agencies—are on the front lines of both crises, facing dire staffing shortages and bureaucratic chaos on top of shockingly meager pay, benefits, and protections.
Study: Prescribed burns substantially reduce wildfire severity, smoke
Prescribed burns are widely recognized as an effective wildfire mitigation tool. Now, using satellite imagery, land management records and fire emissions data, a team of researchers has put hard numbers to those impacts. During the 2020 season, fires that burned over recent prescribed fire areas were 16 percent less intense and emitted 220 fewer pounds of smoke per acre.
Fire historian: Dragon Bravo Fire is changing as its burns, posing huge problems for crews
The Dragon Bravo Fire at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, sparked by lightning on July 4, has decreased significantly in containment over the past few days — down to just 4% — as the blaze pushes north with extreme fire behavior.
Stephen Pyne, author of "Pyrocene Park: A journey into the Fire History of Yosemite National Park," joined The Show to talk more about what fire crews are facing.
Unified wildfire service plan stalls after Congress demands answers
“Wildfire management is more than extinguishing fires,” the letter stated. “The critical linkage between fire suppression and forest management, including fuels reduction and prescribed fire, must be maintained. Severing forest management and forest managers from fire suppression will make firefighting less safe and put communities at greater risk.”
After Grand Canyon fire, forest experts say managed burns still needed
Pyne said it’s unfortunate that managed fires only make news when they get out of control and destroy large tracts or someplace special to people. He pointed to two controlled burns near Payson and Pine, Arizona, that achieved their desired effects without fanfare earlier this year.
Pyne likewise welcomed an investigation. He just hopes it won’t lead to an “all-suppression” fire management regime.
The truth about the burning forest
This is a transcript and video of an investigative report that critiques the South Korea Forest Service’s proposal to use logging, road-based fuelbreaks, and planting conifers to address wildfire risks.
Note: there are numerous errors in translation from Korean to English
Resources for Oregon firefighters have restrained early-season wildfires but may not last long.
Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, called the state’s long-standing emphasis on aggressive initial attack a “paradox.”
“Of course, they are successful with initial attack early in the season, those are the same conditions where it would be ideal to manage the fire to reduce the fuel when wildfires burn in peak wildfire season, where they won’t be successful with an initial attack. And that’s the paradox,” Ingalsbee said. “When we are successful with initial attack, it’s probably when we shouldn’t be so aggressive in putting fires out and when we’re not successful with initial attack, it’s during pretty severe fire weather and we wish we had let fires reduce fuel loads earlier in the year.”
He advocates letting fires burn in unpopulated areas, allowing for natural fuel reduction and preserving resources for when lives and property are at risk. Shifting from an “attack” to a “monitoring” mindset, he said, is safer for firefighters and better for ecosystems.
Firefighter In British Columbia Attacked By Grizzly Bear On Wildfire.
Within just seconds, the grizzly bear charged the crew lead, swiping at his legs with her claws. Even though the bear made contact with the firefighter's legs, he was able to remain standing long enough for him to take two swings with his paws before the bear knocked him to the ground.
All this happened within seconds. Watch the video here.
Vlogger captures amazing scene.
We Are Living in the Age of Fire. And It’s Only Going To Get Worse
“Fire is always where people are,” Flannigan continues. “It goes with us wherever we go. But the genie is out of the bottle. Fire is now uncontrollable, and we're going to see more and more fire and more and more catastrophic fire.”
Flannigan thinks we are living in the pyrocene, the age of fire, an idea from Arizona environmental historian Stephen J. Pyne. By burning so much coal and oil, we have changed the climate and can no longer control the processes.
2 Firefighters Killed in Idaho Sniper Ambush
Law enforcement officers exchanged fire with the gunman while the wildfire burned. Officials later found the body of a male suspect on the mountain with a firearm nearby, Sheriff Robert Norris of Kootenai County said at a news conference on Sunday night. The authorities said they believed the suspect had acted alone, but they did not release any information about his identity or motives.
“This was a total ambush,” Sheriff Norris said. “These firefighters did not have a chance.”
Suspect identified in firefighter ambush that left 2 dead and 1 injured in Idaho
Authorities have confirmed the identity of the suspect in the firefighter ambush as 20-year-old Wess Roley, according to a law enforcement official.
Investigators believe the suspect intentionally set a brush fire on Canfield Mountain on Sunday before opening fire on responding firefighters, killing two and injuring a third.
CNN Live Updates
Santa Fe National Forest to manage lightning-caused 176-acre Laguna Wildfire in Coyote Ranger District
“We manage fire-adapted landscapes, and the Laguna Wildfire is an opportunity to create a resilient ecosystem that reduces the future risk of catastrophic severe wildfire to communities,” stated Anthony Madrid, SFNF Deputy Forest Supervisor.
‘Like taking Smokey Bear away from the Forest Service’: Trump Administration proposes consolidating wildland firefighting into single agency
“Wildfire management is more than extinguishing fires,” National Association of Forest Service Retirees Chair Steve Ellis wrote in the letter. “The critical linkage between fire suppression and forest management, including fuels reduction and prescribed fire, must be maintained. Severing forest management and forest managers from fire suppression will make firefighting less safe and put communities at greater risk.”
‘It’s unbelievable’: How Trump’s cuts could weaken wildfire prevention
The Trump administration is “doubling down on a failed approach,” said Dave Calkin, who served 25 years in the U.S. Forest Service before leaving in April through the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program. He said the administration’s executive order is a “return to a war on fire” that prioritizes ad hoc responses over investing in the personnel, planning and strategy to prevent blazes before they begin.
Trump aims to consolidate federal firefighters into one agency
“The major danger of this proposal is that it will sever fire management from land management,” said Ingalsbee, who’s also the executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, a nonprofit based in Eugene. “We’re just going to be locked into that reactive mode of emergency firefighting — divorced from any pre-fire mitigation, post-fire recovery or rehabilitation and community fire preparedness.”
Trump executive order calls for wildfire program 'consolidation,' strengthening mitigation
“Trump is rushing through this consolidation scheme during peak wildfire season,” said Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of the fire policy advocacy group FUSEE. “It's really confusing.”
One controversial provision in a draft of the order published by news outlets in April was omitted. It called for the “immediate suppression of fires.” Aggressive suppression is widely believed to be one of the principal culprits in today's wildfire crisis. Even the Forest Service has acknowledged that “an overemphasis on fire suppression” has been a contributing factor to the severity of wildfires. Ingalsbee said it was “a relief” to not see that language in the final order.
The Forest Service said no wildland firefighters were removed from their jobs as part of the Trump administration’s workforce reductions, and full-time wildland firefighters were exempted from the DRP. But about 1,400 employees with “red cards” — or those who are qualified wildland firefighters despite it not being their main job title — voluntarily left the Forest Service in the past few months by opting into the DRP.
The agency is now attempting to recall those 1,400 employees as wildfire season ramps up across the country.
Trump tells Forest Service, Interior to merge wildfire management programs. Trump has ordered a consolidation of the government’s wildland firefighting programs. But with wildfire season already underway, some feds worry about impacts.
Will Oregon have enough firefighters for 2025 wildfire season?
Crandall declined to return this year, saying she needed steady employment and couldn’t gamble on that amid the ongoing chaos at the agency. When she hears agency leaders insist that they haven’t compromised firefighting capacity and compares that to what she’s hearing from employees who remain with the agency, she’s incredulous.
“No one realistically thinks this is going to be an OK season, an OK situation,” she said. “It’s not just reckless and wrong, it’s dangerous.”
California faces rough fire season as US Forest Service work becomes more politicized
Kelly Martin, a retired chief of fire and aviation at Yosemite National Park, said with shifting political winds, she expected the agency to take a very aggressive suppression stance this summer. “We know that the use of good fire on the landscape and the use of [managed] wildfire … is now taking a backseat to the suppression intent this summer.” But, she added, this shows a failure to learn from past mistakes.
“I think it sets us up for what basically becomes an untenable, unworkable situation this year because this is the same strategy that we’ve had for many, many decades,” Martin said. “Wildfires just keep getting bigger and bigger and more dangerous.”
Trump to merge wildland firefighting forces, despite warning of chaos
The order makes no mention of climate change, which Trump has downplayed even as global heating helps stoke bigger and more destructive wildfires that churn out huge amounts of harmful pollution.
Organizations representing firefighters and former forest service officials say it would be costly to restructure firefighting efforts and cause major disruptions in the middle of fire season.