BY KATE DARGAN
The year 2010 marks the centennial of the start of a national wildland fire suppression policy that was instituted after a particularly devastating wildfire. The “Big Burn” or “Big Blowup” of August 20-21, 1910, destroyed three million acres of forest and several towns in Washington, Idaho, and Montana; 87 people died, 78 of whom were firefighters. Although the credit and honor go to all wildland firefighters for their efforts—past and present; paid and volunteer; state, federal, and local—we don’t seem to be winning this war. As the most recent California fire marshal and a 30-year veteran of cutting, squirting, chopping, flying, or otherwise fighting fire on the ground, in the air, and behind the desk, I believe California is finally changing its fundamental approach to its wildland urban interface (WUI) fire problem.
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