Wildfire Magazine

Uniting the global wildland fire community

  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
    • February 2018
    • December 2017
    • October 2017
    • May-June 2017
    • March-April 2017
    • January-February 2017
    • November-December 2016
    • September 2016
    • May-June 2016
    • March-April 2016
    • January-February 2016
    • Summer-Fall 2015
    • March-April 2015
    • January-February 2015
    • November 2014
    • August 2014
    • May-June 2014 Large Fires
    • July-August 2013
    • September-October 2013
    • May-June 2013
    • March-April 2013
    • January-February 2013
    • November-December 2012
    • September-October 2012
    • Archives 2012
  • About Us
    • IAWF
    • Wildfire Magazine – Info
    • Author Guidelines
    • Request Magazine Copies
    • Wildfire Photo Contest
      • 2012 Photos
  • Intl Jrnl Wildland Fire
TwitterFacebookLinkedinFlickr
  • Features
    • Aviation
    • Community
    • Fire and Weather
    • Human Dimensions
    • Policy
    • Safety and Health
    • Technology
    • Tools and Tactics
    • Training
    • Wildfire Awareness
  • Fire News
    • Fire in the Media
    • Fire Science
    • IAWF News
    • Wildfire Innovations
  • Columns
    • After Action
    • Briefing
    • President’s Desk
    • Pulse Check
    • Thoughts on Leadership
  • Wildfire Blogs
    • Large Fires Conference
You are here: Home / Articles / Briefing: A storytelling of firefighters

Briefing: A storytelling of firefighters

January 4, 2016 by Ron Steffens Leave a Comment

When animals gather in large groups, we give them names: a “charm of finches,” a “bike of hornets.”

Crows come in a murder, horde, parcel, or my favorite — a storytelling of crows. In folktales, crows gathered to pass judgment (and capital punishment) on their peers. Other eytomologies claim that this dark side of crows and ravens come from their attendance as scavengers on the battlefield or cemeteries.

After the 6th International Wildland Fire Conference in Korea this past October, I wonder if a gathering of wildfire and bushfire experts should also be called a “storytelling” — though not due to a crow’s harsh judgement or cacophony.

If you work closely with any large groups of animals — firefighters included — one can hear the power of shared stories. And as we gathered this issue of Wildfire, it was the storytelling that resonated.

From the Korea conference, writer Lindon Pronto focuses on the the many ways we might manage “local” fires, since without such management we collectively face a global worry. And it was a global worry that focused the stories (and the science and policy) of the Korean conference into a new fire paradigm, combining fire suppression with fire management with appropriate fire use into “integrated fire management” or IFM. From Korea, these fire messages were delivered to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris in November. And the COP21 agreement returns an essential task to fire leaders: we must use fire as an appropriate tool and curtail the misuse of fire. And do so quickly. Before the next IWFC, scheduled for Brazil in 2019, we will potentially cross the tipping point on climate change. It’s urgent that we act on any climate drivers we can. To manage unwanted fires and return the appropriate torch of managed fires to the land is as much “a moral equivalent of war” today as the initial motivation to suppress ALL fires (and too many fires) that first launched US firefighting efforts in the early 1900s.

But fire is not simply a threat to our climate; we lose lives of firefighters and community members, and communities burn, when we fail to manage our human relationship with fire. From years of firefighting experience in the US West, long-time hotshot sup Matt Holmstrom writes of the many stories that collectively offer a new set of cautionary warnings — from tragedy fires, we must listen to the human factors in order to prevent injuries and deaths on the fireline.

A key lesson from Pronto and Holmstrom: wildfires and bushfires are a part of our lives — yet beyond the destruction of ill-managed fire there is a magic in the science of fire-adapted landscapes, and a mesmerizing power in the flames and the work of fire management. Witness the art and commentary by Tonja Opperman, a long-term fire analyst with an artist’s eye, featured in “Fire in the Media.” In our “After Action” column, writer Joshua Daniel Bligh shares a story of redemption on the fireline. One of many inmate firefighters key to firefighting efforts in the US this past summer, Bligh writes: “Mustering the courage to push oneself to his or her mental and physical limit … You discover things inside yourself that you didn’t know you possessed.” Including a career, he hopes, in fire management.

Add our regular columnists — IAWF president Tom Zimmerman offering perspective on strategy, executive director Mikel Robinson on the transition of IAWF board members, and Mike Degrosky on the value of civility in leadership — plus wildfire innovations and products from leading industries in our field … and we truly have a storytelling of firefighters.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

January-February 2016

Download PDF - Print Issue

President's Desk

Improving Wildland Fire Management Strategies

Briefing

Briefing: A storytelling of firefighters

IAWF News

New IAWF Board Members and Transitions

Thoughts on Leadership

Civility

Policy

Local Fires, Global Worries

Safety and Health

Common Denominators on Tragedy Fires – Updated for a New (Human) Fire Environment

Safety and Health

A list of common human factors on tragedy fires

Fire in the Media

“Hmmm … so … you paint … what?”

Wildfire Innovations

KIMTEK’s new website offers faster, simpler access to rescue transport products

Technology

Free GPS App Tools for Volunteer and Seasonal Firefighters

After Action

Confessions of an Inmate Firefighter

Browse by Topics

  • Columns (65)
    • After Action (14)
    • Briefing (15)
    • President's Desk (19)
    • Pulse Check (2)
    • Thoughts on Leadership (15)
  • Features (79)
    • Aviation (6)
    • Community (10)
    • Fire and Weather (3)
    • History (3)
    • Policy (11)
    • Prescribed Fire (1)
    • Resilience (2)
    • Safety and Health (19)
    • Students of Fire (4)
    • Technology (9)
    • Tools and Tactics (7)
    • Training (5)
    • Wildfire Awareness (6)
  • Fire News (54)
    • Fire in the Media (7)
    • Fire Science (19)
    • Fired Up (2)
    • IAWF News (21)
    • Wildfire Innovations (5)
    • Wildfire Issues (2)
  • Human Dimensions (8)

January-February 2016

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org

Copyright © 2018 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in