NFPA Journal - Summer 2022 - 37

A wildfire life
Aron and I flew from Denver to Sacramento,
grabbed a rental car, and made
the 90-minute drive up to Grizzly Flats.
The higher into the hills we drove, the
denser and taller the trees became.
The fall colors were beautiful. That
all faded, though, as we approached
the area where the fire started. Several
miles south of Grizzly Flats, the
landscape transitioned rapidly from
autumn woodland to a vast moonscape;
previously healthy forest was reduced
to little more than charred poles sticking
out of the blackened ground. We
saw an occasional home, or cluster of
homes, that had made it through the
fire, but all that remained of most were
empty foundations with stone chimneys
poking from the rubble. The shells
of burned-out vehicles littered the
landscape. The mood in the car turned
somber as we took it all in.
Before the arrival of the moonscape,
though, our drive had reminded me
of childhood trips to McCall, Idaho,
where my grandparents had
lived when I was a kid and
where my wildfire journey
began. McCall is a small
town located a couple of
hours north of Boise in the
Payette National Forest. The
attractions are obvious: fresh
air, trees, open spaces, mountains,
solitude. For some it's
home, and for many others
it's a weekend getaway. As
in Grizzly Flats, homes in
McCall are spread throughout
the landscape, many surrounded
by dense vegetation.
A mix of building materials
and roofing types are used on
structures, some fire resistant
and some not. Evacuation
routes are limited; the only
major road running through
McCall is state highway 55.
The prevalence of second
homes and absent landowners
means properties may not
be as prepared for a wildfire
event as they need to be.
My family would visit
McCall from our home in
Rainier, Washington, in the
summers, and it was on those trips that
I was introduced to wildfire. Summer
storms would travel across the mountains
bringing lightning and thunder,
leaving wildfires in their paths. Over
the following days and sometimes
I still saw firefighting
as vitally important,
but I wanted to move to a
role that helped protect
people, homes, and
communities ahead of a
fire so we didn't have to
put firefighters in that
position to begin with.
weeks, we watched as helicopters and
airplanes passed overhead on their
way to engage the fires. The impressive
response got my attention; in my child's
imagination, I began to think that I
wanted to be involved in fighting those
wildfires, too.
Wildfire was already a family affair.
After retiring from the military in the
1970s, my grandfather, Martin, went
to work for what is now known as the
National Interagency Fire Center in
Boise, coordinating the movement of
crews and other resources to wildfires
throughout the region. When he moved
his family to McCall, he worked for
the Payette National Forest in a similar
capacity. My grandmother, Betty,
also worked for the forest service. One
season when we stayed with them, my
mom, Jeanine, worked at the nearby
fire cache, a warehouse with a supply of
fire equipment assembled in preparation
for fire suppression efforts.
After my first year of college at Washington
State University, I returned to
McCall for the summer to work on a
Youth Conservation Corps crew. Most
of our jobs were hard manual labor,
but they exposed us to aspects of natural
resource management, including
prepping areas for prescribed fires. I
wanted to be more directly involved
The author during operations on a wildfire in 2013. Firefighting introduced
her to the complex relationship between wildfire and the built environment,
she writes, experience that is crucial in her work helping communities
prepare and protect themselves against wildfire.
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NFPA Journal - Summer 2022

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