I get calls and emails from fellow firefighters, all from a different era. I keep hearing that us veteran firefighters have something to say about wildfires. I know I do.
Have you noticed that no matter which fire it is, or where it is, what you hear and see seems like the same story? Looks like the same imagery over and over and over? Have you ever noticed that you hear a version of what’s happening?
Some things can never be talked about. Some things can never be written.
What is really going on behind the fire lines?
I decided to start writing down memories and observations.
Here it is, my version of things as I experience and experienced them, and as I see them now.
Times have changed, the fire has not.
About the Author
I grew up roaming the hills and mountain back country of California and the West.
Herding cattle in the hills with grandpa and the cowboys of the Los Padres covers a lot of ground. I saw that fire that was everywhere. I became a seasonal firefighter with the California Division of Forestry in the 1960s, going on to become a fire captain in Northern California, then a fire instructor and career as a professional torch.
Burn Boss and complex ignition specialist were two of my hats training aerial ignition modules for agencies and tribes in the Western states. My team conducted live fire training and skill development in refined techniques for fighting fire with fire, and in landscape scale prescribed burns.
I am retired and enjoy relaxing in the mountain breezes.