Wildfire Dozer in Action

I have a lot of respect for all wildland firefighters whether they be on the ground or in the air. Wildland firefighters on the ground may be operating dozers. Dozers are important in wildland firefighting. One of the important roles that dozers play are in clearing large line around a fire to help contain the wildfire. And there are other roles that dozers play in working wildfires. I know that the New Jersey Forest Fire Services operates dozers when needed to work wildfires. 

I enjoyed this twelve minute January 2026 video shot from the point of view of a dozer operator. I always learn something from videos like the one I am sharing with you today. Thanks to all wildland firefighters on the ground (on foot or in dozers) and in the air fighting wildfires. Stay safe.

Direct link to January 2026 video from Wildland_Firefighter on YouTube

Friday Fun: SEAT in Action in July 2025 Flying a Fire in Washington State.

As regular followers know, as circumstances allow I do try to share what I consider fun aerial aviation videos on Friday. Fun for me means that I enjoy the video and learn something at the same time. I checked out Simon Butler Aviation on YouTube, a channel I like to check for his good aviation videos, he shares many interesting videos including but not limited to aerial firefighting. So, I checked out his Youtube Channel today and saw this eleven minute video that I am sharing with you today shot by the pilot of single-engine air tanker (SEAT), the pilot shared this video with Simon Butler Aviation. The video was shot somewhere in the vicinity of Deer Park, WA where you will see the SEAT taking off and landing. The SEAT is a scooper, and you will see the SEAT filling their tanks with water in this video. I too love this video, shot by the pilot showing their point of view, as someone who is not a pilot, I always enjoy these pilot's point of view videos. 

A heads up that you will see a couple of "commercial breaks" in the video.  

You may note the mention of the Wildland Firefighter Foundation in the description of the video, they do good work and I encourage you to check out their site.

   

  Direct link to January 2026 video from Simon Butler Aviation on YouTube 

Prescribed Burns in Winter in U.S. Forest Service Lands

 

As I write this post I have about 9 inches of snow in my yard from a snowfall on January 25th, others areas in New Jersey and environs got more snow, see this page from the Northeast Regional Climate Center  for more information on this storm.  I am not here to report on the winter weather. I was curious about the effects of winter snowfall on wildfire operations, e.g. what sort of operations can happen on snow covered lands in the winter. I did a brief search on line and found that certain kinds of prescribed burns, known as pile burning are very effective on snow covered lands in US Forest Service lands. During warmer weather when US Forest Service crews engage in fuel reductions by removing larger trees, often those that are dead or in the process of dying as well as removing smaller brush. Large logs can be used as building materials. That leaves smaller limbs and brush. Smaller limbs and brush are gathered in piles that are burned in the winter. Burning these piles in the winter is known as pile burning. See this 2023 document from the U.S. Forest Service for more information  In the short video that I am embedding below, you will learn more about pile burning.

   

Direct link to August 2025 U.S. Forest Service video on YouTube 

Prescribed Burning as Fire and Forest Management in Montana and Maine

In the years that I have been writing this blog I have come to see the important role of prescribed burns. Prescribed burns is not new as indigenous peoples have been conducted what we call prescribed burns for decades.

I am sharing two videos from The Nature Conservancy on prescribed burns. The YouTube channel for The Nature Conservancy may be found here.  While the nuances of prescribed burns in different states and other countries in the world may differ, these two videos helped me to learn more about prescribed burns.

The first video highlights prescribed burning in Montana which I found interested because I recently finished reading Fury of the Beast by Dave Scott where among other things he discusses prescribed burns as a tool for forest management in Montana.

Direct link to July 2021 video by the Nature Conservancy on YouTube

The second video discusses training firefighters in conducting prescribed burns and fire management in Maine As I have spent time in northern New England in years past, I was especially interested in this video.

Direct link to December 2025 video by the Nature Conservancy on YouTube

Friday Fun: Valley Helicopters Flying in British Columbia

From Vertical Magazine, a seven minute 2024 video of a visit by a Vertical Magazine reporter to Valley Helicopters in Hope, British Columbia to look at Valley Helicopters operations and a little of their history and types of helicopters they fly and the types of missions their helicopters fly. 

Direct link to September 2024 video from Vertical Magazine on YouTube.

Deadly Wildfires in Chile

Direct link to January 21st Al Jazeera English video on YouTube

Thanks to my friends at the B10 NJ Wildland Fire Page and Mike Archer of Wildfire News of the Day I know about the deadly wildfire season in Chile. According to a January 19th article on Reuters about the wildfires in Chile, at least nineteen people have died and 325 homes have been destroyed in 30 heat and wind driven wildfires and a state of emergency has been declared. Wildfire Today wrote a January 20th post about the wildfires in Chile.

The image below of smoke from wildfires in Chile was captured on January 18, 2026 by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites. Obtained on January 21st from https://www.eumetsat.int/image-week-smoke-chilean-wildfires

Coulson Aviation: Aerial firefighting from start to finish

On  Monday morning on the day we celebrate Martin Luther Kings birthday is the morning after a weekend of two moderate snowfalls here in New Jersey and adjoining states. I suspect but am not quite certain that the snowfall may put a damper on any existing wildfires and perhaps may deter any wildfires from starting? 

I pause on this holiday to share a Facebook video from Coulson Aviation on aerial firefighting from start to finish.

Direct link to video from Coulson Aviation on Facebook

Firefighting Aerial Operations in Florida

Direct link to December 2025 video from Vertical Magazine

For reasons I won't get into here, I have had a special interest in the Florida environment, in particular the Everglades, for over twenty-five years. During a trip to Florida about 12 years ago, I spent a couple of days in and near the Everglades. I can not adequately describe how special it was when I got to visit the Everglades  that I had loved for so long and continue to love. 

Every so often I like to take the opportunity to focus a blog post on wildfires in Florida. In this case it is how State of Florida aerial resources are used to aid wildfire detection, prescribed burning and to assist the wildland firefighters on the ground fight wildfires. In the video that I am sharing the focus is on the Eagle Single helicopter. Their fixed-wing aircraft are the eyes on the sky for the helicopters and the crews on the ground. There are other areas in Florida besides the Everglades where wildfires have burned.

Added on January 23rd, I apologize for the duplicate post of this video. I just realized that I had already shared this video in early December.

Prescribed burns in northern California the week of January 12th

I continue to reflect on what I learned when I read When it All Burns by Jordan Thomas. Mr. Thomas spent some time talking about conducting prescribed burns in California. It has been on my mind to try to keep an eye for information on prescribed burns in California as I read Mike Archer's (of Archer Copywriting) five day a week e-mail, Wildfire News of the Day (link to subscribe to Mr. Archer's newsletter may be found here. Thanks to two recent e-mail newsletters from Wildfire News of the Day, I found two links to prescribed burns in northern California about prescribed burns that were being conducted this week. 

The first link is to Shasta-Trinity National Forest where they are referencing prescribed burns that are happening the week of January 12, 2026. As you can see, there are multiple prescribed burns and they are notifying the public that these areas may be closed and for nearby residents to be aware of smoke emanating from these prescribed burns.

The second link is from KRCR for a January 12, 2026 report on a prescribed burn happening near the area burned by the 2018 Paradise Fire. At least some of these prescribed burns involve burning what they call machine piles (of wood).

2025 U.S.A. Wildfire Season: Summary Figures for Year by Category

I am always interested in knowing the number of wildfire incidents and the like for the past year for the United States. However, I admit that until now I did not know where to look for these figures. I again owe a debt of gratitude to my friends at the B10 NJ Wildland Fire Page who recently shared a graphical file from the Wildfire Lessons Learned Center called "Numbers and Lessons" Collected from 2025 Incident Reports. The Numbers and Lessons file is a summary of 2025 incidents that I think will be replaced later by a complete report for 2025 incidents, go to Annual Incident Review Summaries for more information. Please note that at some point you will not see the 2025 Numbers and Lessons report but will see instead a complete report of 2025 incidents. I do note that with the incident numbers by category (entrapment, UTV, chainsaw cuts, driving related. and hit by tree) that there were only 12 fatalities and six of them were from medical causes.