The ghosts of disasters past, present, future

October 16, 2020

My World’s on Fire is a free newsletter about disasters from journalist Colleen Hagerty. My goal is to help you feel a bit more at ease about our unpredictable world by equipping you with in-depth reporting and insights. I can only do that with your continued support, so please subscribe and share!

Photo: Autumn foliage in New Jersey

Moving to California from the East Coast means spending fire season responding to a series of well-intentioned texts. Family and friends kindly “just checking in” after seeing headlines about the flames rapidly spreading across the state.

Wildfires and the West are often coupled together, understandably so due to the massive scope and impact they have here. But they’re actually a regular feature across the U.S. – Maine, for example, is currently having its own record-breaking season. And, as journalist Kim Kelly cautioned in a recent op-ed for The Philadelphia Inquirer, my own home state of New Jersey has all the makings of a particularly devastating burn:

Wildfires have long been an important part of the Pines ecosystem, but they are getting riskier. The densely wooded region has a number of ecological “ingredients” that make it especially susceptible to wildfires, with the NJDEP website noting that it is “one of the most hazardous wildland fuel types in the nation.” This year, as of Sept. 25, New Jersey had already seen 894 wildfires burning 4,711 acres. A 2016 State of New Jersey Wildfire Risk Assessment compared the Pinelands specifically to “an inch of gasoline covering all of south and central New Jersey.”

I spoke with Kim about her beautiful reflection on fires in the Pinelands, and I found myself afterwards gravitating towards works that are grounded in a specific moment. Some reflect back on past failures, others offer insight into current crises, and the rest, like Kim’s, consider what our future might look like. I’d love to hear about any other links that have interested you in this space this week – leave them in the comments or reply to this email to reach me directly.

Extra, Extra: ‘The wildfires that have always shaped N.J.'s Pinelands now threaten to burn my home’

“It really is such a strange phenomenon, because it is a 1.1 million acre nature reserve in the middle of the most densely populated state in the country. And yet nobody really knows about it unless they've been there,” Kim Kelly told me of the Pinelands, where she grew up. “They don't realize that there are thriving communities and this rich cultural history down there in those woods.”

Here’s our conversation about her op-ed, edited a bit for length and clarity.

Colleen: What made you want to write this now?

Kim: Thinking about forest fires and wildfires always freaks me out, because I grew up in the woods. I grew up seeing them happen sometimes across the street. And, obviously, the horrible devastation we're seeing out West, that's at the forefront of your mind if you pay attention to the news for more than five minutes at a time. So, it's kind of this old fear that I've always had, but now, it seems so much more heightened, because we've destroyed our climate and these wildfires are becoming such a huge, huge problem. And it's like, why wouldn't it happen at home, right?

In your piece, you mention some of the prevention measures that the Forest Fire Service does have going on. Do you remember any of that from growing up, as well?

Every year from when I was maybe 5 to 15, firefighters came in and gave a presentation. You know, when you're little, you hear about Smokey the Bear, “only you can prevent forest fires.” Around town and on the highways surrounding the area, there are fire warning signs everywhere, like every few miles. It becomes part of the scenery after awhile.

And then when you get older, it's just kind of this familiar drumbeat. Especially where I'm from, there's not a lot to do, so there's always kids, you know, smoking in the woods or riding their bikes around – just doing the kind of things you do in the middle of nowhere. And that increases the risk because, as the fire warden I spoke to said, the majority of these fires are human made.

When you were speaking with the fire warden, I mean, of course you're coming into this with your background and and knowledge of the area, but did you learn anything that changed your perspective at all?

It was actually pretty comforting in a way. You know that there are fire breaks, that there are these sort of physical measures that they are taking. You know that there are prescribed burns, because you see burned up pine trees surrounded by lush forest. There's the basic stuff that you already know.

But I wasn't aware of the amount of data collection and analysis that goes into their prevention strategies. I didn't realize the amount of coordination that's happening, not only with California, but with people in this field across the country and across the world. There's a much more robust technological aspect to it. It seems like there's a lot happening behind the scenes and the surface that I feel like, if more people knew about it, they might feel a little bit better, you know? Because it's not just a couple of Smokey the Bear signs.

Thank you again for Kim – for more, check out her op-ed here. You can (and should!) follow her work on Twitter and support her on Patreon.

More on my radar

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Here’s a little something for reading to the end.

Colleen