NFPA Journal - Winter 2021 - 88

Looking Back
FIRE INCIDENTS AND
OTHER NOTABLE EVENTS
FROM SAFETY HISTORY
than 3 million acres of forest,
decimating towns, and killing
at least 85 people. This
devastating event, known as
the Big Blowup or the Big
Burn, had a profound impact
on land-management officials
like Greeley and their
belief that the only approach
to wildfire was its complete
eradication.
An important question
addressed at the 1921 conference
was whether to allow
" light burning, " the regular
and systematic burning of
the forest floor as a means
of preventing out-of-control
wildfires on federal lands.
BIG BURNS
O
By Caitlin Walker
n November 14, 1921, the
US Forest Service held the first
National Fire Control Conference
near Sacramento, California. William
Greeley, chief of the US Forest
Service at the time, invited the 45 attendees-foresters,
forest supervisors, and other personnel
from Forest Service districts across the United
States-to discuss the inconsistencies in fire control
around the country.
The overarching question for attendees-and a
key reason for the inconsistencies that existed from
district to district-was whether wildfires should
be tolerated in any form, including controlled
burns. Greeley was in the zero-tolerance camp, a
view shaped in large part a decade earlier when
he witnessed one of the most destructive wildfire
events in the nation's history. In the late summer
of 1910, a complex of more than 1,700 wildfires
tore across three western states, destroying more
88 | NFPA JOURNAL * WINTER 202 1
100 YEARS LATER: THE 1921
NATIONAL FIRE CONTROL
CONFERENCE
The effect of this controlled burning on forest health had been debated
for years, but at the 1921 conference it was decided that the practice was
dangerous and that it had no place as part of a national wildfire policy.
Despite the objections of dissenters, the official outcome of the conference
went even further: every effort should be made to keep fire out
of the nation's forests. It was a doctrine that complemented a growing
belief inside the Forest Service that the Big Burn could have been prevented
if the agency had had more resources with which to combat the
fires. The agency doubled down on its policy of suppression and prevention
as it built the roads, lookout towers, and other infrastructure
needed to fight fires, and as it studied public education and outreach
techniques to teach the public how to prevent fires. The ultimate
expression of the agency's no-fire philosophy emerged in 1935 with the
" 10 a.m. policy, " where the Forest Service called for the suppression of
every wildfire by 10 a.m. on the day following its initial report.
A century after Greeley's fateful California conference, its impact is
still being felt. Research has existed for decades demonstrating that
wildfire plays a crucial role in maintaining healthy ecosystems across
the country, from the Sierra foothills of California to the grasslands of
Florida. But a half-century of aggressive anti-fire policies has left many
wildfire-prone areas choked with fuel, a condition that contributes to
the mega-fires that now regularly claim lives and property-and, ironically,
can resemble aspects of the Big Burn itself.
THE NFPA LIBRARY AND ARCHIVE holds a rich collection of books, reports, and photographs
that document important moments in fire history. To provide better electronic access for researchers
and to preserve our unique archival holdings, work has begun to digitize the files of the Fire
Record Department, the original NFPA department responsible for collecting and analyzing information
and compiling statistics about key fires and other events. The incidents featured in " Looking
Back " are drawn from this collection and will eventually be part of NFPA's online archive. For information,
visit nfpa.org/library.
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NFPA Journal - Winter 2021

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