Writer, fire guy (aka pyromantic), exploration historian, urban farmer. Recent books include "Pyrocene Park" and "Five Suns: A Fire History of Mexico."
Website: www.stephenpyne.com
Steve Pyne
Loading...
In recent decades 1998 has been season of record for the Southeast - looks like it's getting a challenger. The year was also noteworthy for the smoke that poured across the southern US from Mexico's 'temporada catastrofica' which led to major reforms in policy and programs.
If we all start thinking response is politicized (and I admit it sure looks like we are losing to the siege forces), if you demand that responders follow a party, it can do nothing but make disasters worse, response less effective, & recovery less equitable.
Hands off Smokey. Free the Bear! 11/11
Researching for a fire history of the Kaibab Plateau - my response to the Dragon Bravo fire -I found the jobs and pay for fed firefighters in 1946. You could be a legit flunky (paid more than an unskilled firefighter). Glad to see smokechasing as a distinctive category. Highest paid? Head cook.
Tall Timbers was on the national register - a loss all around. I had the privilege of serving on the board for 3 years. Not just a place but an exemplar of fire and land management.
wildfiretoday.com/fire-burns-h...
And the perennial favorite, the Oscar-favored beef drag, here by Frederic Remington.
And what Oklahoma had instead of engines -
As reports tally up the 2025 fires, here's a long view back. I've updated and abridged Vestal Fire - now 40% as long, with half the new text completely rewritten, reorganized, and reconceptualized. The narrative still includes Russia. Should be published in spring, 2026.
With Nebraska burning, it might be time to post some historic images of fire control on the Plains. Start with firebreaks installed in the Sandhills - double plowed lines with the interior burned out.
Before GIS there were fire atlases - all analogue, with printed topo maps, data entered with heavy colored pencils, hard bound in canvas. Here's one from the Kaibab National Forest that was rescued, scorched, from a fire in the supervisor's officer. A fire(d) atlas?
O'Connor is among the best journalists writing about fire. And the New Yorker? Who would have predicted it would regularly publish pieces on fire? Amazing fire, insightful essay.
www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
