NFPA Journal - January/February 2020 - 23

Dispatches Oddities

HUH?

GETT Y IMAGES

RECENT HEADSCRATCHERS
FROM THE WORLD OF FIRE
AND LIFE SAFETY

through. The situation became increasingly dire, with an intense orange glow
encroaching on the bus, as shown in
the film through cell phone footage captured during the incident. The teachers
began praying for what they thought
was the best possible outcome-a nonpainful death. "It's hard to say this out
loud, but we prayed that we would die
of smoke inhalation," one of the teachers, Mary Ludwig, says in the film.
Cooper and Canepari's work joins a list
of several other documentary films that
have been released on the Camp Fire. On
October 29, PBS broadcast a documentary by the same name for its Frontline
series. That 54-minute film, which is
available for free on pbs.org/frontline,
followed a documentary PBS broadcast
in May for its NOVA series called Inside
the Megafire, which took a more scientific
approach to chronicling the Camp Fire.
Both the Netflix and Frontline documentaries conclude with chilling
reminders that California's increasingly
frequent and powerful wildfires show
no signs of slowing in coming years.
"The costs have changed, the risks have
changed," climate scientist Michael
Wara says in the Frontline film.
To read the January 2019 NFPA Journal account of the Camp Fire, which
details the factors that combined to
make it so deadly and destructive, go to
nfpa.org/campfire.

LEO DICAPRIO: ACTOR. ACTIVIST.
WILDFIRE SUPPORTER?
Between running a foundation to
combat climate change, having four
new movies in the works, and sailing
around Europe on a luxury megayacht
with his model girlfriend, it's hard to
imagine Leonardo DiCaprio also has
time to set the Amazon rainforest on
fire. But that's what Brazil's president,
Jair Bolsonaro, accused the Oscarwinning actor of doing in November.
"This Leonardo DiCaprio is a cool
guy, right? Giving money to torch
the Amazon," Bolsonaro said during
a speech at his presidential palace,
according to media reports. He cited
unsubstantiated and disputed social
media posts claiming DiCaprio donated
to an organization that started the
wildland blazes, which began in January 2019 and are ongoing. DiCaprio has
denied the allegations.

GOATS: DARN SMART
As the Easy Fire bore down on the Simi
Valley in California this fall, an unlikely
hero emerged to help save the Ronald
Reagan Presidential Library from

damage: goats. According to an article
in USA Today, hundreds of goats are
brought to the area each year to eat
brush around the perimeter of the
library, creating a fire break. "It was
darn smart," a library official told the
newspaper.

CLAW MACHINE GIVETH,
CLAW MACHINE TAKETH AWAY
A small boy made international headlines in December after he apparently
crawled inside a claw machine at a
mall in Guandong, China, becoming
trapped. Firefighters had to break the
lock on the door of the toy-dispensing
glass box to free the child.

WHO'S A GOOD BOY?
In December, a house fire started
in Essex County, England, after a
pack of bread rolls caught fire in the
kitchen microwave. According to
media reports, the owner of the home
claims he was not there at the time
of the fire and that his dog, a husky,
must have inadvertently switched on
the microwave. The kitchen sustained
considerable smoke damage, but the
dog escaped injury. "Our advice is to
always keep your microwave clean and
free of clutter," a fire service official
told Sky News. "Animals or children
can turn them on more easily than you
might think."
N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

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http://www.pbs.org/frontline http://www.nfpa.org/campfire
NFPA Journal - January/February 2020

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