Watching for Smoke

David Mitchell works for the Butte Prescribed Burn Association, or PBA, organizing fires in the neighborhood.

Before he did that, he was a professional fighter with the UFC.

My specialty is, uh, Brazilian jujitsu, so that's chokes and joint manipulations.

Chokes.

So you're getting someone in the lock, and then you get them down and-

Yeah, where they, you kinda give them the option of they're either gonna fall asleep or they're gonna, uh, tap out.

In the past 15 years, the Forest Service has started using the word mega fire.

What we have in these catastrophic fire events is what we call a crown fire, when the fire runs across the crown of all the trees and burns at high severity, killing kinda everything, and burning houses, and even taking lives, and the vehicles and all that.

That crown fire is supported by a ground fire.

They work together.

There's a lot on the ground to burn.

This, right where we're walking, this used to be...

You know, maybe people can hear it.

Do you hear the, uh...

That's oak litter and pine litter on the ground, oak leaves and pine needles, which is s- super flammable.

Sorry, I gotta-

Yeah

... take this radio.

Go for David.

People have begun to start their own ground fires in the fall, winter, and spring, when it's not as hot, so that during wildfire season there's less left to burn.

Prescribed fires, um, the terminology we use, they used to use the term controlled fire, but, um, we prescribe it.

We can't 100% always control it.

We're trying to get out ahead of it, right? You know, like, if we can turn it black and we can burn it now, it can't burn again in August.

There's not enough fuel.

David says burning fuel on the ground can make a crown fire less likely.

David Mitchell works for the Butte Prescribed Burn Association, or PBA, organizing fires in the neighborhood.

Before he did that, he was a professional fighter with the UFC.

My specialty is, uh, Brazilian jujitsu, so that's chokes and joint manipulations.

Chokes.

So you're getting someone in the lock, and then you get them down and-

Yeah, where they, you kinda give them the option of they're either gonna fall asleep or they're gonna, uh, tap out.

In the past 15 years, the Forest Service has started using the word mega fire.

What we have in these catastrophic fire events is what we call a crown fire, when the fire runs across the crown of all the trees and burns at high severity, killing kinda everything, and burning houses, and even taking lives, and the vehicles and all that.

That crown fire is supported by a ground fire.

They work together.

There's a lot on the ground to burn.

This, right where we're walking, this used to be...

You know, maybe people can hear it.

Do you hear the, uh...

That's oak litter and pine litter on the ground, oak leaves and pine needles, which is s- super flammable.

Sorry, I gotta-

Yeah

... take this radio.

Go for David.

People have begun to start their own ground fires in the fall, winter, and spring, when it's not as hot, so that during wildfire season there's less left to burn.

Prescribed fires, um, the terminology we use, they used to use the term controlled fire, but, um, we prescribe it.

We can't 100% always control it.

We're trying to get out ahead of it, right? You know, like, if we can turn it black and we can burn it now, it can't burn again in August.

There's not enough fuel.

David says burning fuel on the ground can make a crown fire less likely.