Build Fire Resilient Communities
TO: Mr. Michael Smerconish on 12 January 2025
I watch your Saturday show on CNN each week. Last weekend, the focus was on the LA Fire. You published an article from ABC News quoting NOAA that 2024 is the hottest year on record. Your poll then tested your viewers’ opinions about what is to blame for “the devastation of the California wildfires.” Of the two options, the result when I voted was 73.18% climate change and 26.82% Government Mismanagement.
2020 SMERCONISH.COM ESSAY: In September 2020, you published an essay about a fire my family experienced. The essay https://www.smerconish.com/exclusive-content/the-politicization-of-wildfires-is-killing-me/ recounted the large Sequoia Complex fire and how it burned down most of Alpine Village in the Central Sierras. When I wrote, we did not know the fate of our family cabin, but we subsequently learned it was one of the very few that survived. We attribute this to excellent luck, dedicated wildland firefighters, and our consistent preparation as a family. We had removed dead trees and grass and had filled holes in the cabin siding.
PREVENTIVE ACTIONS: My belief in the essay’s lessons continues. Preventive standards are critical for fire safety. Some things are difficult to overcome. An example is smaller lots in fire country, where one unit can ignite the one next door. This and other structural issues do not make the matter entirely hopeless. We have guiding principles that must always be observed. A fundamental prerequisite for dwellings near wildlands is using fire-safe materials, including metal or other fireproof roofs, which we had for our cabin at Alpine Village.
More innovation would also be helpful. I observed that for the irreplaceable Giant Sequoias during the Sequoia complex fire, the firefighters wrapped them in a foil-type material as they did some historic cabins. There are also fire tents for personal safety, which have saved lives. I wonder if developing similar systems for residential areas would be possible. There are many constraining factors, such as time, cost, and workforce, but could systems such as these help?
My question is based on the Alpine Village experience, where our cabin was saved because, among other factors, we reduced exposure by moving away combustibles, and double pain windows had been installed, where the outer pane cracked but the inner kept the flames from the ignitable curtains. I have a reading lap that was about 6 inches from the scorching flames but survived fully intact. I call it the Hope Lamp.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Your analysis appears to focus on climate change. Indeed, climate change is an aspect of lower humidity levels and dried vegetation. However, the key to the LA fires and the Sequoia complex has been WIND. The winds, do not appear to result from climate change based on the materials I have reviewed though the conclusion may be adjusted because there is increasing focus on the wind. Fire prevention forces contained previous fires near Alpine Village, but in 2020, they burned primarily because of high winds along with dried vegetation including trees killed by beetles which had not been removed.
“Climate Change” is a well-worn master-key narrative for many problems when blame is assigned. Indeed, it is an essential factor in the fire risk chain, but I believe we must better understand how it applies in specific instances. We usually receive very high-level, generalized pronouncements, such as that recorded on your website from NOAA through ABC News that 2024 was the hottest year recorded. I guess the implication is that it explains things, and there is a tendency to stop with the explanation.
But does this generalization help me understand what is happening on the ground where I live? I have gone to Google AI to check if 2024 was the hottest year ever for where I live. What are the specific conditions I face? The results of this search for the hottest year for Klamath Falls, Oregon, 2024, is not at the top of the list. Instead, Google AI provides me with dates in 1902, 1905, and 2021 as 1, 2, and 3. The year 2024 was rated #10, which is high but not the hottest.
I consistently find significant differences between NOAA pronouncements and disaggregated information for specific communities. To be practical and relevant in the long run, NOAA should explain how they pronounce the “hottest year” and provide specific detailed information for individual communities. When I check for Alpine Village, 2020 does not come up for Porterville, the closest reporting sensor. It lists 1908, 1913, and 1931 as hottest dates.
A generalized, high-level statement does not help except for a political narrative. Instead, communities should have specific information about how the climate is changing in their locale, what historical conditions have been, what the impacts will be, and how to mitigate them if they are adverse. Based on the land-grant cooperative extension approach, scientists should be available to discuss these mitigations with the community members.
FORCES FOR DIRECT ACTION: In the 2020 article, my major conclusion was that we must build a strong workforce to undertake preventive actions—a climate corps. I should add to the comment above that we need additional innovation for protective systems for existing structures in high-fire-risk areas.
Though I do not have information on how it has assisted with the LA fires, there has been an effort by the Biden Administration to initiate a climate corps to address the many challenges presented by climate change. The national website for the American Climate Corps provides the following information.
Since taking office, President Biden has delivered on the most ambitious climate, clean energy, conservation, and environmental justice agenda in history – signing into law the most significant investment in climate action ever, protecting more than 21 million acres of public lands and water, and advancing the Justice40 Initiative, which directs 40 percent of the benefits from key federal investments to disadvantaged communities. President Biden promised to mobilize the next generation of clean energy, conservation, and resilience workers as part of this historic commitment to tackle the climate crisis.
The American Climate Corps provided a status report in September 2024, which the following link describes: https://www.acc.gov/posts/2024-09-25-fact-sheet
The report does not appear to focus on wildfire prevention and suppression or on projects such as Ponderosa Way discussed below.
An example of a workforce historically applied to preventive activities was the Ponderosa Way Firebreak. This public works was 800 miles long from the Cascades into the Sierras. Stephanie Williams and Lacey Peterson stated that the CCC provided nearly one million “man-days” in fire prevention and suppression activity. It constituted the single most significant wildland suppression force ever assembled in American history. In terms of prevention, though there was extensive CCC effort, there is no maintenance on much of the Ponderosa Way Firebreak, and other local firebreaks have grown over, such as the one an Alpine resident advised me existed near Alpine Village. Environmental regulations, processes, and litigation complicate establishing and maintaining them, which is compounded by lost public and private funding.
At Alpine, along with brave firefighters, preventive actions were a key to keeping the cabin. Preventive actions are more inclusive than is apparent. Certainly, they include crews to remove flammable vegetation. Still, there should also be a cadre of evaluators in fire-prone areas who visit every property and review it for beneficial actions. They should point out what is wrong and advise about available resources to address the exposures. We need coaches much more than police.
DEDICATION AND INSIGHT: We have not coalesced as a people to require significant on-the-ground effort from Washington DC and state capitals. We have not organized, though the American Climate Corps has formed. We have substantial setbacks that are spectacular on television but also seem to have a short memory, except for those who have burned out. There have been few happy results. Because of stringent regulators reacting to significant losses, it has often been difficult for folks to reestablish themselves. As you note, insurance premiums have increased significantly, and frequently, awards have been reported to be low and slow in cases. As Americans, we can do better. The market will not fairly solve this, but we can if we are a people with dedication and insight.
Respectfully,
John Longley, Keno, Oregon
