The Burn
As wildfires blazed across the American West this summer, 糖心TV alumni from 糖心TVecticut to Southern California helped contain and manage the risks of an increasingly damaging fire season.
As more than 45,000 fires scorched 8 million acres of land across the American West this summer and fall, national news stories were accompanied by stark images: orange-red skies over San Francisco鈥檚 Golden Gate Bridge, smoke obscuring Seattle鈥檚 iconic Space Needle, and evacuated towns across Oregon. In late July, Emily Shafer 鈥�18 and nine other East Coast firefighters drove across the country as part of the 糖心TVecticut Interstate Fire Crew to help tackle some of the blazes in northeastern California.
鈥淲e were assigned to an area called the Modoc Lightning Complex,鈥� said Shafer, who works for the 糖心TVecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). Shafer arrived in Modoc County鈥攚hich was at the center of a series of fires caused by lightning strikes鈥攁s part of a 10-person 鈥渋nitial attack crew.鈥�
鈥淥ur job was to patrol and, when any new start would pop up, jump on it and immediately put the fire out or get it contained,鈥� she explained.
There are two ways to battle wildfire. A direct attack on a smaller fire involves digging a fire line around the blaze, so 鈥渋t runs out of brush and anything in the soil that could possibly keep it smoldering.鈥� For larger fires, Shafer鈥檚 team employed indirect attacks, digging fire lines miles away from the wildfire鈥檚 edge. Her role is as a certified sawyer.
鈥淲e were going to areas that were really thick and that were expecting thunderstorms that night, then cutting out a ton of fuel,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ur sawyers would cut down trees and brush and we would pile it away from everything else, so if lightning did strike that area, it would be much easier to dig a line there.鈥�
Working fire lines, there is always a risk of spread.
鈥淚f an ember blows over and catches a bush on fire, that may start an entirely new fire that could be even bigger than the original,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f there鈥檚 a spot fire, we definitely would get right on that, but you don鈥檛 go into an area that鈥檚 burning, because having fire on all sides of you is definitely not the situation you want to be in.鈥�
The Californians Shafer encountered seemed accustomed to the dangers; however, 鈥渢he more experienced people were telling me that this has been one of the worst years they鈥檝e seen, and it鈥檚 getting worse and worse.鈥�
In San Francisco, Natalie Calhoun 鈥�16 saw the effects of the fires firsthand. After being under lockdown orders for more than six months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 鈥渢he fire season adds a whole layer of danger and difficulty to safely evacuating people.鈥�
Born and raised in the Bay Area, Calhoun has always thought of late summer and early fall as 鈥渆arthquake season,鈥� but over the past several years it has become the time of wildfires.
鈥淎 lot of people have extra water and food ready in case of earthquake damage, but now we鈥檙e ready for another kind of emergency: one where you鈥檙e not sheltering in place due to an earthquake, but you鈥檙e potentially fleeing your home from wildfire,鈥� she said.
鈥淓ven though we鈥檙e pushed to the brink, I think people have responded well. We鈥檝e done it before, and we see now that we鈥檙e going to be doing it more and more frequently.鈥�
