For most of June and July, national news outlets reported on the growing wildfires in Arizona. Each week, dry, hot winds increased the fires’ intensity and size, forcing residents to flee communities in the path of the blaze and decimating hundreds of thousands of forested acres. As the fires intensified, the NFF began receiving calls from residents and businesses who wanted to help. Our initial response was to simply respect the intensely hard work of firefighters and other Forest... (Read more…)

Having just returned from an assignment to the Coronado National Forest’s Horseshoe 2 Fire as a Safety Officer on a Northern Rockies Incident Management Team, I wanted to share some of my experiences and observations. The 223,000 acre fire burned through most of the Chiricahua Mountains, including the Chiricahua National Mounument .  The team was assigned to complete the mop-up of the fire as well to rehabilitate the firelines constructed as part of the suppression... (Read more…)