Preventing Wildfire With the Wild Horse Fire Brigade
Monday, October 31st, 2022 Risk ManagementLike a growing number of people in the American West, naturalist William Simpson is intimately familiar with wildfire. He lives in California’s rural Siskiyou County where overgrown grass and brush routinely fuel hot-burning and deadly wildfires.
This year, the McKinney fire killed four people and burned more than 60,000 acres.
But it was a wildfire four years ago that posed the greatest risk to Simpson’s home. The 2018 Klamathon Fire burned uncontained for 16 days, sending giant flames toward Simpson’s property.
"The fire just came right up over that ridge," Simpson tells NPR during a visit to his property. "[It] burned all the trees and destroyed all that conifer forest up there." Yet Simpson’s land and much of the local community remained safe. He credits the community’s Wild Horse Fire Brigade.
"It started getting into the area where our local herd of wild horses had reduced the fuel...large areas that were grazed open became safe zones for Cal Fire personnel and equipment that were stationed in front of the fire," Simpson says. "These horses helped mitigate the Klamathon Fire."
