“It’s called fuel loading,” said Parker Berrington, a firefighter, clutching an adze hoe amid crackling flames and groaning, collapsing tree branches, one tiny part of a vast battlefront. “This is an area we’ve been scared about for years.”
Left unimpeded, nature used to produce periodic wildfires which purged undergrowth while sparing most trees. From the early 20th century, loggers objected – the cycle disrupted business – and authorities snuffed out blazes as quickly as possible. Thus undergrowth – fuel – accumulated. It was a time bomb.
“We’re dealing with a hundred years of suppression,” said Berrington, streaked and grimy from round-the-clock battle. “The most we can hope for here is to slow down the fire and secure the ridge line.” Firefighting planes droned overhead, obscured by a grey shroud of smoke.
“Watch how the fuel load helps it climb that dry bark,” said Johnny Miller, another firefighter, as fire licked up a pine. The flames ascended using “ladder fuels” – aka branches – and ignited the top, creating a crown fire that threatened to ripple across the canopy.
Climate change, drought and human settlement into previously uninhabited areas have played important roles in the growing number and ferocity of US wildfires but the Rim fire’s speed – it leapt rivers and roads before firefighters could respond – owes much to the venerable piles of forest debris, and the hubris of denying fire.
Forest ecologists say it is no coincidence the Rim fire exploded through areas which had seen few or no blazes in almost a century – an unnatural absence since California’s mountain flora evolved to burn.
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