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  The 2021 Wildfire Advent Calendar has been brought to you by Creative Crisis Leadership, a fledgling nonprofit organization with an award-winning new approach to community disaster preparation and a mission to prepare people to be unprepared. Now it’s your...

“I think the key to my, our experience is, the fact that we were a very, very tight knit community helped immensely.” — JD, 2020 CZU Lightening Complex Fire survivor We often hear from people that those around them were what helped most in getting through a disaster....

  Yesterday, we talked about some specific tips and tricks that will help you prepare to evacuate. What about some fun facts around lesser known wildfire evacuation tips and tricks, though? First, let’s talk about refrigerators, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of...

  “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” While the history of this phrase is unknown, it still holds true. Now, we’re not here to talk about planting trees (although that also helps with wildfire recovery), but rather being...

  Remember the wildfire in Bambi? Where Bambi and all other the animals are running for their lives from the wildfire? The fire that was started by an unattended campfire? The scary thing is, this scenario is both realistic — animals try to outrun a wildfire —...

Photo from WikiMedia Commons   Prescribed burns are nothing new. Native Americans incorporated controlled burns into their culture not just to reduce wildfire fuel, but also as a vital tool in their agriculture and industry. “Indigenous people have been...

  In 2020, a series of wildfires burned in Napa county CA. My mom lived just 25 miles away. She was worried.  She had heard that embers can blow miles downwind from a fire and burn down houses. Was she right to be worried? Short answer: No. The Napa fires never...

Photo from InciWeb, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons  “What people don’t often realize is that hand crews are kind of the cornerstone ... putting in hand lines, that’s essentially the way we stop the fire from growing.” — Mike Johnson, Assistant Fire Chief,...

  Just because the fire is gone, doesn’t mean the crisis is over. There is much to do after a fire has swept through your neighborhood.  Returning home Here are some key safety steps Calfire urges you to take when returning home after being evacuated: First of...

  Mary has a little lamb. In fact, she has twenty-seven of them. One day, a wildfire breaks out. Mary, her farm, and all her little lambs are in the evacuation zone. Mary’s lambs and all their moms won’t fit into her pickup truck, so she doesn’t want to go. Can...

  Humans have been counting for a long time. There is strong archeological evidence to support the hypothesis that we’ve been doing it for at least 50,000 years. Over time, mathematics has come to be known as a universal language. Globally, we may have different...

  Disaster management, one aspect of emergency management, provides a framework for understanding disasters and how we handle them. There is some debate about the specifics, but the model we have found most useful defines 5 steps: Prevention - We can take actions...

  If you want to go beyond protecting your house from wildfire, and help your community to prepare, there’s some good news. Community organizing takes commitment and hard work. But it can be a lot of fun, and, in the case of wildfire preparedness, there’s help to...

Have you ever heard the catchphrase, “Remember... Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires”? If so, then you’re familiar with one of the longest running public service campaigns in the United States, promoting wildfire safety. Did you know that wasn’t Smokey’s original...

“With the fires, my job was to leave.” So says Barbara, who had to evacuate in the face of the Santa Cruz fires. Outside of the very real trauma of potentially losing her home, she found that evacuation was “smooth and easy.”  No traffic. No rushing. And no anxiety of...

  Fighting a wildfire is not like fighting a house fire. When a house is on fire, the goal is to put the fire out as quickly as possible. This is mostly accomplished by pouring water on the flames, depriving it of oxygen and reducing the temperature of...

  Drones can be a valuable tool for gathering information and learning about what’s going on in a disaster area. They can also make matters worse. When it comes to fighting wildfires, aircraft are used to drop fire retardant and water, monitor fire conditions,...

  Why do some homes burn and some don’t, when wildfires burn through inhabited neighborhoods? In this 10-minute video, Glass Fire Post Fire Analysis - For Residents, a fire chief leads an educational tour through a neighborhood that was ravaged by the Glass Fire...

  “My God, it's so simple, ... to prepare for this. It's basically being sure your roof and your gutters are clear. And that you've raked ... a walkway, ... around the house that doesn't have combustible material. … because they [the fire department] explained...

  A few months ago, we were swimming in smoke.  Well, not me. I stop outdoor exercise when wildfire smoke pushes the Air Quality Index (AQI) above 125. Even though that’s below the 150 “Unhealthy” rating.  You see, AQI only measures five major pollutants:...

  Wildfires affect EVERYONE. This statement might seem extreme. Especially, if you live in a city — far from trees, or much of anything flammable really that you can see. It isn’t. Burning biomass contributes significantly to climate change, and wildfires burn a...

  This video will give you a new respect and awe for the power of nature:  https://www.wired.com/video/watch/extreme-events-fire-tornado Fortunately, these extreme phenomena are not something to worry about in our everyday lives. “True fire tornadoes have only...

  You’ve heard of baptism by fire. But what about baptism of a fire? Hurricane names are drawn sequentially from a pre-established list that is managed by the World Meteorological Organization. Wildfire naming isn't as systematic. In California, wildfires are...