when you’re getting kind of right up
close to the fire and really kind of
intimate with the fire and you’re
digging your heads down and your
scratching line you’re down in the dirt
and you’re working and sweating and it’s
hot and it’s hard to breathe you’re
choking because of the smoke your eyes
are burning and you’re you just right up
against it and you look up and there are
fire worlds which are like a tornado of
fire literally and these fire whirls are
six feet around and they’re almost 70
feet tall there’s tall as a tree it’s
just a moment that you’re terrified and
in awe all at the same time because
there’s nothing there in your experience
to help you to really grasp the gravity
of the situation that you’re in right
then
what they are seeing is scary what they
are seeing is not what they’re used to
at all and that’s terrifying
Colorado used to be considered we called
it the asbestos State because it just
was not a significant fire environment
State and in the last 10 years that
significantly changed in 2010 we had the
four-mile fire within two years of the
four-mile fire the record for most
destructive fires was eclipsed twice and
since then it’s been eclipsed I think
two more times
10-day fires four day fires three day
fires I was kind of the norm not two
week three week two month all summer
long
we’re being confronted in and asked to
suppress or battle fires that didn’t
exist
twenty years ago the Heyman fire from
2002 is in my opinion probably one of
the best indicators of the impacts of
climate change along the Front Range of
Colorado here we had not seen large
plume dominated fires we had what we
called one-day wonders when it was windy
the fire would grow but when the wind
stopped the the fire would basically go
out haman fire was not like that when we
were on the Heyman fire watching you
know a 5-mile run through the through
the canopy and and and just knowing that
that’s not what’s supposed to happen
well there are many reasons from that it
comes down to talking about drought
stressed trees lack of spring moisture
and higher than normal temperatures and
those combined created and signaled
really a shift in the fire environment
along the Front Range we saw fire
behavior we haven’t seen before and
little did we know that was the
precursor to what we’re seeing today and
it’s become the new norm responded 7104
Mile Canyon Drive for trees that are
10:03 I got a page letting me know
there’s a new fire start in Four Mile
Canyon in every single CH I got the page
at the same time one of my best friends
rod moraga got the page I got a page too
for the fire and jokingly you know said
to my wife you know it’s the big one and
kind of laughed and said I’ll see in an
hour
something like that and I walked out the
door and was like holy smokes this thing
is going to go big rod lives there I had
a pretty narrow view of the fire and was
focused immediately on how do we put it
out what I think was a microburst just
came down on us probably 3040 miles an
hour and that fire just fanned and and
probably tripled in size within 15
minutes the conditions were extreme and
I was very scared
I’ve never been in a situation before
where I’ve been that surrounded by fire
where we were literally going
house-to-house trying to protect
property trying to save structures I at
one point had a an engine it was
assigned to my crew wanting to turn the
assignment down I was absolutely
convinced people were going to die
somewhere during the day I I started
thinking about my house what was ironic
was that I had assigned all the fire
engines and there were no more fire
engines so I basically just watch until
it hit my house and then I just turned
around left because I didn’t really you
know there’s not much else to do when we
see fuel loads that have increased over
time when we see weather and climatology
that has gone to extremes we don’t have
a fire season we we have a year-round
fire season and
any any month of the year is conducive
to wildfire
on October 9th in 2012 I was dispatched
to a fire in Rocky Mountain National
Park that right there is an outlier it’s
a novel event Rocky Mountain National
Park does not have fires in October the
risk to firefighters was hide the costs
were high to suppress the fire against a
less than 1% chance that the fire was
actually going to do anything we decided
to back off let the fire kind of do its
own thing for another week or two
season-ending event would come in and
the fire would go out so nearly two
months later the fire was still going
and strong winds came up one night and
pushed the fire three miles in the night
at night in practically December
throughout the night we’re still having
active intense fire temperatures aren’t
cooling off as much I think that the
fire environment is changing so
dramatically and so dynamically because
of our environment in general they’re
faster moving more destructive they’re
more volatile there are fires that have
burned downhill over long stretches
which kind of flies in the face of
convention because fire wants to move
uphill on a day-to-day basis we’re being
surprised and in this business surprises
what kills people
from where I live in Northside Colorado
Springs I got a good view right at the
fire area initially I was having a hard
time grasping when I was looking at
we had a thermal collapse of this
conductive column a superheated air gas
smokin it had enveloped the large air
the community I was in a pickup I
started driving up these streets I was
going to roll the window down and when I
went to felt the radiant heat through
the glass woman that’s not survivable if
I take a breath of that that’s not
survive I need to get out of here it was
chaotic I was scared to the point of
being emotional by I was convinced guys
were thought they weren’t resources
really anymore to me that we’re you know
people and so we’re going to tell these
people you know tell that guy you know
what you got a family and ov doesn’t
matter right now you took oath go in
there we have a responsibility community
we have a responsibility to ourselves
our profession but at what point is that
no longer become viable plus I have this
awareness now what this fire behaviors
been for all these years and knowing
that where does that cross over into my
responsibility to go and send people to
do these crazy things
okay when I came into that fire I
thought I was ready for it because of
what I’d seen but the fact that matter
is you’re never really ready Black
Forest made what we were seeing that
first night at a four-mile fire almost
looked small seeing the homes burning in
these subdivisions that were already
lost seeing the devastation that had
happened
watching the crews moving almost like
they were out of their element the fire
was jumping it was moving much faster
than we could get in front of it it’s
like being in a fog bank only it’s all
smoke you can’t see the fire you can
hear it it’s out there you know it’s out
there somewhere but you don’t see it
there are lists of rules kind of rules
of engagement as to how much fire you
can put what kind of a resource on and
when you’re looking at that much fire
that you can’t put any kind of a
resource on it that’s an oh moment
so that public can’t have an expectation
anymore that we are going to take
firefighters and put them in front of
that it’s beyond our capability to
manage we’re not going to kill good
people trying to save infrastructure
that we put in a place that probably
shouldn’t be there and so they’re
changing this new environment dry arid
drought stricken area with lots of fuel
is we’re going to change the way we live
in it and that’s where we’re struggling
is there evidence of climate change in
the fire environment you have to say yes
because we are seeing a level of fire
and an intensity of fire and a risk to
firefighters that that hasn’t existed in
the past and every indicator is every
year it just gets worse this summer is
my 21 year old daughter’s first year on
the fire line and people always ask our
you’re proud and in one sense yes and
then in the quiet moments it scares the
crap out of me in my 20 years
you know I come close to dying and you
know I hope that she doesn’t have that
but when I look at the changing fire
landscape yeah I worry you know because
I can’t I can’t tell her what she’ll see
because she’ll see stuff that I’ll never
see as a society we have to take this
evidence seriously we’ve got to start
confronting climate change with the same
level of effort and resources and
intensity that we do to fight wildland
fires firefighters are already taking
unacceptable risks
you
close to the fire and really kind of
intimate with the fire and you’re
digging your heads down and your
scratching line you’re down in the dirt
and you’re working and sweating and it’s
hot and it’s hard to breathe you’re
choking because of the smoke your eyes
are burning and you’re you just right up
against it and you look up and there are
fire worlds which are like a tornado of
fire literally and these fire whirls are
six feet around and they’re almost 70
feet tall there’s tall as a tree it’s
just a moment that you’re terrified and
in awe all at the same time because
there’s nothing there in your experience
to help you to really grasp the gravity
of the situation that you’re in right
then
what they are seeing is scary what they
are seeing is not what they’re used to
at all and that’s terrifying
Colorado used to be considered we called
it the asbestos State because it just
was not a significant fire environment
State and in the last 10 years that
significantly changed in 2010 we had the
four-mile fire within two years of the
four-mile fire the record for most
destructive fires was eclipsed twice and
since then it’s been eclipsed I think
two more times
10-day fires four day fires three day
fires I was kind of the norm not two
week three week two month all summer
long
we’re being confronted in and asked to
suppress or battle fires that didn’t
exist
twenty years ago the Heyman fire from
2002 is in my opinion probably one of
the best indicators of the impacts of
climate change along the Front Range of
Colorado here we had not seen large
plume dominated fires we had what we
called one-day wonders when it was windy
the fire would grow but when the wind
stopped the the fire would basically go
out haman fire was not like that when we
were on the Heyman fire watching you
know a 5-mile run through the through
the canopy and and and just knowing that
that’s not what’s supposed to happen
well there are many reasons from that it
comes down to talking about drought
stressed trees lack of spring moisture
and higher than normal temperatures and
those combined created and signaled
really a shift in the fire environment
along the Front Range we saw fire
behavior we haven’t seen before and
little did we know that was the
precursor to what we’re seeing today and
it’s become the new norm responded 7104
Mile Canyon Drive for trees that are
10:03 I got a page letting me know
there’s a new fire start in Four Mile
Canyon in every single CH I got the page
at the same time one of my best friends
rod moraga got the page I got a page too
for the fire and jokingly you know said
to my wife you know it’s the big one and
kind of laughed and said I’ll see in an
hour
something like that and I walked out the
door and was like holy smokes this thing
is going to go big rod lives there I had
a pretty narrow view of the fire and was
focused immediately on how do we put it
out what I think was a microburst just
came down on us probably 3040 miles an
hour and that fire just fanned and and
probably tripled in size within 15
minutes the conditions were extreme and
I was very scared
I’ve never been in a situation before
where I’ve been that surrounded by fire
where we were literally going
house-to-house trying to protect
property trying to save structures I at
one point had a an engine it was
assigned to my crew wanting to turn the
assignment down I was absolutely
convinced people were going to die
somewhere during the day I I started
thinking about my house what was ironic
was that I had assigned all the fire
engines and there were no more fire
engines so I basically just watch until
it hit my house and then I just turned
around left because I didn’t really you
know there’s not much else to do when we
see fuel loads that have increased over
time when we see weather and climatology
that has gone to extremes we don’t have
a fire season we we have a year-round
fire season and
any any month of the year is conducive
to wildfire
on October 9th in 2012 I was dispatched
to a fire in Rocky Mountain National
Park that right there is an outlier it’s
a novel event Rocky Mountain National
Park does not have fires in October the
risk to firefighters was hide the costs
were high to suppress the fire against a
less than 1% chance that the fire was
actually going to do anything we decided
to back off let the fire kind of do its
own thing for another week or two
season-ending event would come in and
the fire would go out so nearly two
months later the fire was still going
and strong winds came up one night and
pushed the fire three miles in the night
at night in practically December
throughout the night we’re still having
active intense fire temperatures aren’t
cooling off as much I think that the
fire environment is changing so
dramatically and so dynamically because
of our environment in general they’re
faster moving more destructive they’re
more volatile there are fires that have
burned downhill over long stretches
which kind of flies in the face of
convention because fire wants to move
uphill on a day-to-day basis we’re being
surprised and in this business surprises
what kills people
from where I live in Northside Colorado
Springs I got a good view right at the
fire area initially I was having a hard
time grasping when I was looking at
we had a thermal collapse of this
conductive column a superheated air gas
smokin it had enveloped the large air
the community I was in a pickup I
started driving up these streets I was
going to roll the window down and when I
went to felt the radiant heat through
the glass woman that’s not survivable if
I take a breath of that that’s not
survive I need to get out of here it was
chaotic I was scared to the point of
being emotional by I was convinced guys
were thought they weren’t resources
really anymore to me that we’re you know
people and so we’re going to tell these
people you know tell that guy you know
what you got a family and ov doesn’t
matter right now you took oath go in
there we have a responsibility community
we have a responsibility to ourselves
our profession but at what point is that
no longer become viable plus I have this
awareness now what this fire behaviors
been for all these years and knowing
that where does that cross over into my
responsibility to go and send people to
do these crazy things
okay when I came into that fire I
thought I was ready for it because of
what I’d seen but the fact that matter
is you’re never really ready Black
Forest made what we were seeing that
first night at a four-mile fire almost
looked small seeing the homes burning in
these subdivisions that were already
lost seeing the devastation that had
happened
watching the crews moving almost like
they were out of their element the fire
was jumping it was moving much faster
than we could get in front of it it’s
like being in a fog bank only it’s all
smoke you can’t see the fire you can
hear it it’s out there you know it’s out
there somewhere but you don’t see it
there are lists of rules kind of rules
of engagement as to how much fire you
can put what kind of a resource on and
when you’re looking at that much fire
that you can’t put any kind of a
resource on it that’s an oh moment
so that public can’t have an expectation
anymore that we are going to take
firefighters and put them in front of
that it’s beyond our capability to
manage we’re not going to kill good
people trying to save infrastructure
that we put in a place that probably
shouldn’t be there and so they’re
changing this new environment dry arid
drought stricken area with lots of fuel
is we’re going to change the way we live
in it and that’s where we’re struggling
is there evidence of climate change in
the fire environment you have to say yes
because we are seeing a level of fire
and an intensity of fire and a risk to
firefighters that that hasn’t existed in
the past and every indicator is every
year it just gets worse this summer is
my 21 year old daughter’s first year on
the fire line and people always ask our
you’re proud and in one sense yes and
then in the quiet moments it scares the
crap out of me in my 20 years
you know I come close to dying and you
know I hope that she doesn’t have that
but when I look at the changing fire
landscape yeah I worry you know because
I can’t I can’t tell her what she’ll see
because she’ll see stuff that I’ll never
see as a society we have to take this
evidence seriously we’ve got to start
confronting climate change with the same
level of effort and resources and
intensity that we do to fight wildland
fires firefighters are already taking
unacceptable risks
you
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