Big fires demand a big response: How 1910's Big Burn can help us think smarter about fighting wildfires and living with fire
- Written by William Deverell, Professor of History, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Before satellites, fire crews watched for smoke from fire towers across the national forests.K. D. Swan, U.S. Forest ServiceOver two days in the summer of 1910, wildfires roared across the bone-dry forests of the inland Northwestern U.S., the Rockies, and parts of British Columbia. Whole towns burned. The blazes scorched 3 million acres of forest,...