Those of us trying to understand fire have an uphill battle - there’s too much information and not enough of it is at (ahem) our (my) level…
I found that in trying to explain things to others and understand them myself, I needed approachable information about fire. My job is to synthesize an understanding of fire ignition and behavior with my much deeper understanding of the landscape design and construction industry, maintenance practices, the environment, and horticulture. These resources helped me to get a better idea of the hot little number I’m trying to gain an understanding of.
An explanation of what fire is, why it has all those different colors in it, and the anatomy of a flame. It is super groovy.
The transfer of energy in the form of heat is the way fire ignites other things. This article is the main source for one of my blog posts explaining the same thing.
why wildfires are getting worse - with some information about plant succession and how the forests have been changed by human activity. One of the more helpful videos I’ve seen, I have many questions….
564 fire (his YouTube channel above) is the labor of love from a retired wildland firefighter from Southern California. His videos show both urban/suburban structure fires and also wildland firefighting efforts. I find his videos to be absolutely the necessary connection between theory and practice - watch a few, watch a variety, and see if it doesn’t make you see landscape design for fire in a totally new way.
Sign up for this dude’s blog, it is put out by a retired firefighter. Some of it is news, some of it is smoke forecasts, but the BEST stuff is the studies, the editorials, the science and insider perspective on wildland fires - I implore you to sign up for his email list AND when you read a post, this is one place where you need to read the comments, too.
This image is everywhere - and thanks to a beloved colleague who sent me this article, I can finally share with you all more context about this infamous photo.
This article from Firefighter Nation gives an interesting perspective on what smoke is and how we can understand what we are looking at (and breathing) in a fire event. Written for firefighters, they explain some basics that might make you think ‘oh, of course!’ about something most of us haven’t spent much time studying.