Reflections on 10 years of blogging on wildfires: early explorations into the world of wildfires

June 29, 2018
Reflections on 10 years of blogging on wildfires: early explorations into the world of wildfires

After I first got interested in wildfires in July 2008, I recognized that I knew very little about wildland fires. By mid=August 2008, I had a couple of humbling and embarrassing conversations with folk in the business of fighting wildfires. These conversations demonstrated how much I did not know. I suspect that there are some things that I got wrong in my first few weeks of writing about wildfires, especially but not including what I wrote about the Basin Complex Fire (Los Padres National Forest, California. However, even though my ramblings at that time were those of someone who was very new to the world of wildland firefighting, I did care. Perhaps I was not then able to articulate my caring about wildland firefighters and those affected by wildfires in words. But I did care. And it was that caring which kept me going through those sometimes difficult period in the fall and early winter of 2008 to January 2009.

In the early fall of 2008, not quite knowing what else to do, but knowing that I wanted to learn more about fighting wildfires, I did a couple of things on my own. I also kept blogging about other things I was interested in.

The first and perhaps most important thing I did was to continue reading various books and articles I found on the internet about wildland firefighting. After reading Norman MacClean’s book, Young Men And Fire, on the smokejumpers who died in the 1949 Man Gulch Fire, I read about some historic wildfires, as well as other accounts of wildfires where firefighters died. I also read at least one book by a wildland firefighter. I enjoyed that first hand account. I did most of this reading quietly, taking in what I was learning and making notes of things that I wanted to learn more about.

I knew how to do research on the internet, and began to explore the internet for good information on wildland firefighting based in part on what I had been reading. Thanks to a now defunct wildland fire forum, wildlandfire dot com, I began to learn about wildland firefighting from folk who were on the frontline fighting wildfires and their friends. They had a links page, and I began to explore those links. I got interested in how wildland firefighters stay safe, and began reading up on safety. I did some blogging about what I learned, while at the same time trying to be careful of my sources.

I began to follow wildfires around the country, although I suspect that I may have had more of a focus on California. However, I also tried to pay attention to wildfires that burned closer to home, reading and then writing about a couple of late summer wildfires in New Jersey.

I continued to learn. I did enjoy the process of learning about wildland firefighting. I felt a new purpose for my writing after over four years of struggling with what and how I wanted to write about. At the time, I knew that I was only scraping the surface of the world of wildland firefighting. I kept going.

Ten years later, I’d like to think that I know a little more about wildland firefighting. At least as I can without being a wildland firefighter.  I do admit that sometimes I still feel like I am only scraping the surface of what there is to know about wildland firefighting. I keep going with this blog with some minor changes in the last ten years. Most important I continue to care, I care deeply. I feel a strong commitment to wildland firefighting; aerial, troops on the ground, various support staff, and other agencies providing support.