The wildfire smoke that has been making its way from Canada to Utah over the past week is a reminder that fire season is coming. This winter has been particularly wet, so what does that mean for how Salt Lakers will experience fire season — and the folks tasked with fighting the blaze? City Cast Salt Lake podcast host Ali Vallarta spoke to former wildland firefighter Jonathon Golden to find out.
What’s the difference between wildland firefighting and city firefighting?
“For wildland firefighting our focus is primarily, but not exclusively, on vegetation fires. As wildland firefighters, we're typically not trained or prepared to engage with structure fires or do ambulatory calls.
I would say towards the end of my career, and recently as well, there's a lot of mission creep, as fires start to consume more of the wildland urban interface. Oftentimes wildland firefighters are finding themselves in neighborhoods, backyards, so on and so forth, doing suppression activities. So the distinction is pretty clear and defined, but the environment is quickly eroding some of those responsibilities.”
Does a super snowy, super wet winter mean that we're in good shape headed into the summer?
“By all accounts it should, although we've been going through a pretty significant drought up until this past winter. What some of the climatologists are saying — that wildland firefighters rely on — is that the drought category has improved by a couple of levels in the past 12 months, largely because of the winter that we had here in Utah.
I think one thing to keep an eye on is, the soil moisture being where it is, it's gonna promote a lot of growth of grass. And then at some point, it'll start to warm up, and that grass will start to dry out and cure, and it's a tremendous carrier of fire. Some of the most erratic and incredible fire behavior I've seen has been on grass fires. It's something that we have to be mindful of and considerate of, especially as we recreate outdoors now that the weather is getting more conducive for that.”
Do you think that we'll be able to have campfires this summer?
“I think that you are probably safe to have campfires now. When it starts to get hotter and drier out, I would definitely expect and even potentially anticipate that there might be restrictions that are put in place. The best source for that information is the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management websites, or a local district office for federal lands.
A lot of it is just common sense. Make sure your fire is drowned out and cold to the touch. Don't walk away from a fire. And if it's been hot and dry for a spell, you might want to check in before you go on that next camping trip to make sure that you're OK to have a fire.”
Want to hear about how you can protect yourself and your home from wildfires? Listen to the full interview with Jonathon Golden.
Firefighting is serious business. (Jonathon Golden)
