Thread:

In every fire I've worked where multiple homes were burned across a large area, there have been at least some accusations that firefighters favor the richer neighborhoods over the poorer ones. 1/

It's almost a given, right up there along with the rumors that the initial response was not quick enough or deliberately delayed or executed poorly--but we have time-stamped dispatcher logs to counteract those complaints. 2/

As for the favored neighborhood charge, it's lost on many making it that those (including the C&G) responding to wildfires have more in common with poorer neighborhoods than richer ones. Your wildland firefighters are not retiring by 40 or hanging out in the theater room. 3/

Also, with a little experience on those kinds of fires, you quickly learn that the pain of losing a house--a home--is the same regardless of whether it is a mansion or a trailer. It's a tough blow to anyone to lose everything. 4/

Every time in my career we have faced the loss of homes, the firefighters around me have been acutely aware of the emotional cost and done everything possible to limit that loss, regardless of the price of real estate. 5/

Risks will be taken to protect homes, but additional risk will not be taken to protect more expensive homes. 6/

Still, it keeps coming up and it seems a natural thing for people to reflect the greater society back at us. Most institutions we have to deal with play favorites, so why wouldn't wildland firefighters play favorites too? 7/

A few years ago, I was on a fire headed towards a famous ski resort. On the north end were the really wealthy--old money and Fortune 500 CEOs-- in $20-30 million vacation homes. On the south were the recently wealthy--the dot coms, lawyers, doctors--in $2-5 million houses. 8/

The fire was pushing north and that's where we put our efforts, which were successful in stopping the fire front before it reached the developed area. Meanwhile, on the south side, we just needed about a mile of line built before we would have that end buttoned up. 9/

Well, a wind shift occurred, blowing the fire through the gap in the southern lines and into the neighborhood. We did a heck of job with point protection and no major structures were lost, though several yards were burned. 10/

More than a few residents in the "poor" area accused us of favoring the "rich, wealthy" neighborhood and ignoring the south end. After being on fires where non-vacation homes actually burned, it was tough to take them seriously, but we did give them a serious response. 11/

Meanwhile, it took us several days to figure out that 15 miles down the road was a trailer community where the service workers lived. Neither the very wealthy or the merely rich groups had ever mentioned them and we were guilty of not looking beyond the immediate threats. 12/

That was a big lesson for me. Of course there had to be people who cleaned the houses & tended to the yards and cooked the food. We had been so overwhelmed by the vocal homeowners, we had not asked the question who was supporting them & if they were also affected by the fire. 13/

Working with public health pros on the COVID response, I saw how there were many more groups out there than we usually account for. One health agency had materials in 35 languages while on a fire, we're doing good to get Spanish translations of press releases. More lessons. 14/

I guess the point to this somewhat rambling thread is that those of us who work in disasters are exposed to the societal divides more than most, but we can often not see them even when they are right in front of us. 15/

We may also take refuge in the obvious and pat ourselves on the back for the good job we do while not recognizing a whole community just down the road is not only underserved, but in the dark about what is going on. 16/

It's incumbent on all of us to do better by all of our people & to remember that change is only lasting & effective if it comes from the bottom up. As good as I think my wildand fire colleagues are at ignoring the societal biases around us when responding, we can do better. 16/

And we can demand better from other parts of our society. With climate change, the "natural" part of disasters are becoming more complex and if we can address some of the societal complexity that stems from our systemic problems, it can only help us all in the future. 17/17