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| (Photo: Kincade Fire 2019 by Kari Greer/USFS) |
The year is 1871, or was it 1872, 1894, 1910, 1947, 2003, 2016, 2018, or 2019? The month was October, or was it November, September? It was Peshtigo, or was it Chicago, Boston, Hinkley, Northern Idaho/Montana, Bar Harbor, San Diego, Gatlinburg, Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area, Paradise, or plainly California.
It was each and every one of these dates and places. The destruction of fire has been a of life since the beginning of time. We can't live with fire, and we can't live without it. As much as "man" would like to, the forces of nature like wind, fire, and water are difficult to control, if controllable at all.
But science tells us we can control fire. If we take away any leg of the fire triangle, the fire goes out...eventually. It is the "eventually" part of the statement that is important. As we will discuss, there have been major fires in our past. There will be major fires in our future. How can we influence the outcome? Can we? I say, "YES!"
As we will see in this blog series, "we cannot do the same things over and over and expect a different result." How might the past hold the answers to the future? How might we learn those lessons without having to experience them ourselves?
The old adage says "history repeats itself." If we go back to a few points in history (there are many), we will see that history repeats itself. We just forget or choose to ignore the reality that fire WINS and living with fire will always be a challenge. We have to accept that fire is a part of life and living with fire is a collective responsibility.
Over the next few weeks, we will look back at a few noteworthy fires. Fires that destroyed entire communities. Fires where we thought we were prepared. Fires outshadowed by other fires or we just didn't know about. We will highlight some of the following fires:
- Great Peshtigo fire: 1871, Wisconsin/Michigan, between 1,200 and 2,400 lives lost
- Great Chicago fire: 1871, Illinois, approximately 300 lives lost
- Great Boston fire: 1872, 13 lives lost
- Great Hinkley fire: 1894, 418 lives lost (unofficial much higher)
- San Francisco earthquake/fire: 1906, 600-3,000 lives lost
- Big Burn: 1910, Idaho and Montana, 85 lives lost
- Bar Harbor fire: 1947, 5 lives lost
- Cedar fire: 2003, 16 lives lost
- Great Smokey Mountain fires: 2016, 11 lives lost
- Carr fire: 2018, 8 lives lost
- Camp fire: 2018, 86 lives lost
- 2019 California fires...
Wildland Fire Leadership Challenge - Digging a Little Deeper
- Read "When Did Humans Discover Fire? The Answer Depends on What you Mean by "Discover" by Andrew C. Scott
Pam McDonald is a writer/editor for BLM Wildland Fire Training and Workforce Development and member of the NWCG Leadership Subcommittee. The expressions are those of the author.
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