About how I got here
I’m the one on the path in the hat - big fan of sun protection
The long story short…
I used to have the best job in the world for a worthy organization with a fantastic boss: I taught people about the environment, how it related to the landscape, and vice versa. I had autonomy, engaged audiences, and a little income. Heaven!
In early summer 2017, my boss suggested we do a couple of stand-alone talks to maintain momentum between larger professional training events. She asked me what I wanted to talk about – I said I wanted to talk about fire in the landscape. I picked that because I Ashby Bart station flea market in Berkeley, CA when the 1992 tunnel fire broke out, pouring deep charcoal smoke across the sky like the heavens had dropped a broken toner cartridge. I owned a couple of books about fire and landscaping, and thought I could study and pull something together pretty easily.
A monumental 9 people showed up in the stuffy little room we booked. I spoke for 2-1/2 hours, answered questions, and went home; job done with a favorable response. Only TWO MONTHS later, the October 2017 North Bay fires broke out, surprising the public with the level of devastation, the insane speed with which they spread, and the shock of how hard they were to put out.
That is when this fire journey began. I’d like to say living adjacent to the 1992 tunnel fire did it, but I was as complacent as anyone else. In writing this, I asked my former employer how we went from a room of 9 people to what came next. She reminded me that after that talk, I would not shut up about it. I spoke on fire for the second time for Nerd Nite in January of 2018 and somewhere in there, word got around. Between the first talk and the end of 2019, I had presented approximately 20 times.
I like to tell people the silver lining in 2017’s smoke plumes was that lecturing put me on stage standing smack next to fire chiefs, fire scientists, architects, and power company representatives. We were advocating for action/awareness in front of smart, affected, concerned audiences who asked excellent questions.
Chief Thiele of the East Bay Regional Parks Fire Department unknowingly gave me the name for this project. She said that Life, Property, and Environment were the priorities that she learned when she was starting her career. Protect LIFE first, PROPERTY second, and the ENVIRONMENT third in a fire event.
My work began to evolve into something more meaningful than my career had so far provided. I noticed synergies everywhere and my understanding deepened. I needed to ‘just write it down and figure it out later’ which is when someone who had seen me speak asked me to write a guideline to help their HOA tackle the problem of fire. This website was born around that time…. See the website’s story for more.