Fighting Fire with Fire

Why prescribed burning is not an obvious solution for Southern California

Firefighters put water on flames in the sagebrush near our barn during the Bobcat Fire. Photo by volunteer fire photographer Kyle Andrusenki.

In June I spoke with KCRW reporter Caleigh Wells just as she was starting her new assignment covering the wildfire season. During our time together, she graciously listened to my rant about how most of the media coverage of wildfire centers Northern California fire regimes, perpetuating misunderstandings about wildfire issues specific to Southern California.

On Monday her first story ran on KCRW's Greater LA, and it's clear that she was paying attention and thankfully spent the weeks since our meeting talking to people much more knowledgable than me. The result is a nice piece about the limited applicability of prescribed burning as a tool in Southern California.

The story is 13 minutes long and you can listen to it here. Toward the end of the piece she included some bits of our interview, complete with recorded barn yard sounds.

Caleigh will continue to work the Southern California wildfire beat for the season and you can suggest topics for her to investigate by responding to her pinned tweet.

Hopefully we'll get more Southern California specific wildfire coverage from KCRW throughout the year as a result of Caleigh's good work.