Not Quite What They Expected

In April of 2015, I was acting as the Burn Boss trainee in the continuing efforts to bring fire back and allow it to play its natural role in the ecosystem as part of the Roaring Fork Prescribed Burn on Basalt Mountain located between Aspen and Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

The day started like many others with a detailed briefing covering objectives, fuel conditions, weather forecast, ignition and holding plan, and safety. Personnel then began to disperse to their assigned locations and wait for the test fire. The test fire was successful and we proceeded with aerial ignition of the unit. The fuels (primarily Gambels Oak) were pre-green up, relative humidity was low and winds were steady out of the west resulting in fire behavior that was on the high end but within the acceptable range. Minimal holding concerns were encountered and it appeared we were getting the desired fire effects. All in all, it was a good, successful day of burning.

Roaring Fork Prescribed Fire (Photo Courtesy of Kelly Boyd)

So how does this relate to the title of this post? Well, it wasn’t quite what the public expected. Vigorous public outreach had occurred on numerous forms of social media, newspapers, radio stations, door hangers, electronic road signs on major roadways and public meetings, yet hundreds of 911 calls were received by the county dispatch center. Feedback from the public indicated that they were aware of the prescribed fire, however they were certain something had gone wrong and we had lost the burn.

This has shown me that we need to do a better job of engaging with the public and educating them as to what prescribed fire can actually look like. Many of these folks have only seen wildfire in the news and by putting some smoke in the air and generating discussion, we are slowly educating the valley residents  about the beneficial role fire can play in the ecosystem.