Lessons from a historic fire season

When the Campbell County Commissioners announced they were going to hold a town hall meeting to talk about this most recent wildfire season, it raised questions from many who wondered what would actually come out of the meeting.

Would it be filled with constructive criticism? Before the meeting, fire board member Jeff Boardman expressed concern that it was going to be a platform for landowners to blast the fire department.

Thankfully, it seems as though the atmosphere of the meeting was not as negative as some were expecting.

Landowners recognized that this was a historic season for fires. More than 117,000 acres burned in Campbell County this year. That’s about the same amount that burned in the previous 20 years. Combined. It was an extraordinary fire season, and odds are it won’t happen again any time soon, but you never know.

Sure, they had some criticism about how some of things were done, but they kept it civil.

Yes, the fire department didn’t have the manpower or resources to fight these fires on their own, but no local fire department in the country would have been able to take on the blazes without outside help.

The landowners asked for more cooperation, communication and clarity, three things that would benefit any situation.

Cooperation can be tough in a high-stress situation such as a grass fire.

On one hand, it’s understandable why the firefighters got frustrated when the ranchers didn’t follow their direction. After all, it’s the firefighters who are paid professionals, or, if they’re volunteers, take time out of their busy lives to go through training and respond to fires when called.

On the other hand, it can be frustrating as a landowner when the firefighters aren’t doing what you think they should be doing. It’s the landowners who are on that property day in and day out.

But if both sides are willing to work together, the community will be the better for it.

Communication also is key, in fires and in life in general. The more communication, the better. And it goes hand in hand with clarity. Too often, government agencies will get caught up in their own jargon that the general public doesn’t understand, and people are naturally distrustful of things they don’t understand.

We hope that these three elements — communication, clarity and cooperation — will be improved over the coming years.

After all, what’s the point of history if you’re not going to learn from it?