Wildfire resources run thin as firefighters struggle to ‘contain one before another erupts’
Tim Ingalsbee, a member of the advocacy group Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, said the June directive from Christiansen returned the forest service to a mindset prevalent for much of the last century that focused on putting out fires as quickly as possible. He said allowing more fires to burn when they are not threatening life or property would free up firefighters for the most dangerous blazes. With no end in sight to the pandemic, Ingalsbee worried the focus on aggressively attacking every fire could prove lasting.
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Tim Ingalsbee, a retired wildland firefighter and a certified fire ecologist, pointed to the Holiday Farm Fire, a blaze near his home in Eugene, Ore., that has burned through thousands of acres of an industrial tree plantation. “This area has experienced the maximum timber management possible,” he said, “and has made these lands even more flammable than the native forests.”
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Forest thinning would not have prevented such a situation, but more fire-resistant structures could have helped avoid some of the worst destruction, said Timothy Ingalsbee, the executive director of a group called Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics & Ecology. “We can do that,” Ingalsbee said. “We have the tools, technology and know-how to make homes that don’t burn catastrophically.” Even installing a more resilient roof, such as using stone-coated steel, can dramatically raise the odds of a home surviving a fire, Ingalsbee said. Houses consumed by wildfires are often ignited by landing embers, not massive walls of flames, he said. “All the politicians, they want to say, ‘Log the forests before they burn again, relocate suburban communities.’ None of that will work unless and until we start putting limits on and eventually eliminate burning fossil fuels,” Ingalsbee said.