Sierra National Forest, Black Mountain Grove, Pier Fire. We camped in this fire for two nights. There were so few people, we parked in the middle of a logging road intersection and made camp. Not a vehicle came by. Shortly after arriving, my legs turned to rubber; Jeannie was still sitting in the suburban and she thought I was shaking the truck on purpose. It was the strongest earthquake to hit California in 20 years, the 7.1 Ridgecrest quake, 60 miles to the southeast. It was our first, wow... Miracles happen. Paradise California, Camp Fire, 2018. This mural was just paint. It's in bad shape when viewed up close, but it survived a fire hot enough to melt aluminum roofing panels. This fire burned 14,000 homes in 6 hours, 19,000 structures total. It was caused by climate change. Black Mountain Grove, Sequoia National Forest near Nelson Camp. This sequoia was only singed and will be fine. The fire-killed trees on the right are sugar pines and juveniles sequoias less than 400 or 500 years old. Black Mountain Grove, Sequoia National Forest, near Nelson Camp. Sequoia's 1- to 2- foot thick bark, their very tall stature, and their water-based sap means they don't burn, ever. This is why they are thousands of years old. But fires burning 400 degrees hotter because of drier fuels with climate change have now, in 2020 and 2021, burned 20 percent of all known sequoias. Three of the killed giants in this drone shot are standing (one is behind the one on the left) and the fourth has fallen on the left. Black Mountain Grove, Pier Fire, Sequoia National Forest, near Nelson Camp. Three giants saved by low intensity fire. the forward giant and the two billowy ones behind the suburban. Note the brown needles on the lower right, colored by flame. The magnificence of a wild sequoia grove is indescribable. We chose an area to camp in a place that had the smallest trees we had seen, at the intersection of two logging roads. as far away from the burned trunks as we could find to reduce falling risk, and a good thing with the earthquake, though there were very few trees down on the logging roads after. Earthquake Camp in the 2017 Pier Fire, where we experienced the 7.1 Ridgecrest earthquake in 2018. In three days and two nights we were here, we saw one other vehicle not including the University of California Santa Barbara researchers studying the sequoias killed in this fire. This extreme fire is not so different from small areas of other fires, only almost the entire burn area was extreme where in our old climate, normal fires burn a mosaic of varying intensities where some areas would be extreme, but most would not be near as extreme. Today, fires are burning 400 degrees hotter because of many things. Foresters say excess fuels from Smokey Bear fire suppression are the cause. Fire scientists say warming created drier fuels, lower humidity, bigger wind storms, and easier ignition, have now overwhelmed the excess fuels response. The climate change response is so large, perpetual warming-induced drought can create live fuel moisture that is nearly the same as dead fuel moisture. In other words, live trees are just about as dry as dead trees. There were no giants where we camped, it just wasn't safe in areas with tall trees. Warmings has created a new world. CalFire says wildfires are now burning 400 degrees hotter. Foresters blame fuels accumulation with Smokey Bear fire suppression policy. Fire scientists say that warming created drier fuels, lower humidity, easier ignition, and bigger wind storms have now overwhelmed the response of fire to excess fuels. We met some scientists from University California San Diego while we were shooting the Pier Fire. They were studying the fire's extremeness where 38 unkillable giants were killed. When they found out we were filming climate change, they were as excited to see us and ask questions as we were to see them and ask questions. This giant sequoia was fine. Five Beetle Kill Giants -- Taken through the sun roof of the Suburban, there are five beetle killed giants in this photo, either giant sugar pines or young sequoias. Sequoias have billowy plush tops with their needles on, where most of the rest of the conifers have pointy tops, including the younger sequoias less than 400 or 500 years old. On the right is a fresh beetle kill sugar pine, the one with the red needles. Also, immediately to the bottom left of the big sequoia in the center of the frame is a smaller tree with straw colored needles. This was likely burn kill from low intensity fire. Sequoia forest in our old climate almost always had low intensity fires, before our climate changed and fires began burning 400 degrees hotter. Sequoia National Monument, Trail of 100 Giants. The reason the sequoia on the left and the sugar pine on the right look like they are half naked, is most of the trees in this grove have been killed and cut to prevent tourist mortalities. Both fires and beetle kill are caused by the same thing -- drying from warming. Note also the small red beetle kill tree adjacent the sequoia on the right. Traditional science says young trees are vigorous and much less susceptible to beetle attack. In our warmer climate this science is no longer valid. Black Mountain Grove, Pier Fire, Sequoia National Forest, near Nelson Camp. The red trees are mostly fire kill in this image, thankfully low intensity. Some of the red are beetle kill too, as this area was hard hit by bark beetles before the fire. Note our suburban expedition vehicle bottom center. These giants were saved by low intensity fire, but this intensity is not the rule any longer. John Muir, founder of Sierra Club, tells us that in the 19th century fire in sequoia groves rarely rose above the ground. These five sequoias are a tiny part of the 20 percent of all sequoias killed by fire in 2020 and 2021. Sequoias simply did not burn in our old climate. Their bark is up to two feet thick and their giant stature, along with their water-based sap, has allowed them to survive for thousands of years. A small unnamed grove just outside the Black Mountain Grove, Sequoia National Forest. We called this one Fairy Grove. The smaller trees are full grown pines and firs, killed by the Pier Fire, looking even smaller against the sequoia giants. There were about ten giants here with two on the ground. From what John Muir says about sequoias and fire, this intensity, where everything but the sequoias were burned, was not common at all in the 19th century. John Muir was the founder of Sierra Club and an early natural scientists specializing in documenting observational evidence of our natural resources. Sequoia National Forest, Pier Fire, Columbia Lily. We found this gorgeous specimen in a small grove only partially burned, but with two 16-foot giants fallen within 300 feet. We called the grove Fairy Grove. One of the fallen giants was a fire-hollowed stovepipe sequoia, with 18-wheeler sized fallen chunks completely blocking the road. Drone shot from Earthquake Camp, Pier Fire, Sequoia National Forest near Camp Nelson. Drone view of Earthquake Camp, looking south. Black Mountain Grove, Pier Fire, Sequoia National Forest. Tops of four giant sequoias killed by fire. Twenty percent of known sequoias were killed by fire in 2020 and 2021, fire that is burning 400 degrees hotter because of drier fuels, not because of more fuels. Fire scientists say the signal from drying and drier fuels has overwhelmed the excess fuels signal from Smokey Bear fire suppression. Four giant sequoias killed by fire. Twenty percent of known sequoias were killed by fire in 2020 and 2021, fire that is burning 400 degrees hotter because of drier fuels, not because of more fuels. Fire scientists say the signal from drying and drier fuels has overwhelmed the excess fuels signal from Smokey Bear fire suppression because warmer temperatures create nonlinearly drier fuels, less humidity, hotter temperatures allow easier ignition and warming creates bigger wind storms. Black Mountain Grove, Sequoia National Forest, Pier Fire, near Nelson Camp. The big fire kill trees on the starboard side of the Suburban are sequoias. There is another fire-killed giant top right. The giant on the image right is a ponderosa pine that survived. This pyrocumulonimbus, or very large fire cloud, was formed from the smoke plume from the Cabin Lake Fire near Meeker, Colorado. These storms are not new but are becoming more common as fire extremeness increases. They are often too hot and full of ashes to rain water, but instead they rain fire in the form of massive firebrands and lightning, creating even more fires. Bastrop Complex Fire, Bastrop Texas, 30 miles east of Austin, 1,673 homes destroyed 34,000 acres burned. It was caused by the new Drought of Record in Texas in combination with tropical storm Lee in Louisiana with winds gusting to 30 mph. One hundred times more homes were destroyed in this fire than in any previous fire in Texas. Bastrop Complex Fire, Bastrop Texas, 30 miles east of Austin, 1,673 homes destroyed 34,000 acres burned. It was caused by the new Drought of Record in Texas in combination with tropical storm Lee in Louisiana with winds gusting to 30 mph. One hundred times more homes were destroyed in this fire than in any previous fire in Texas. This is not fall color; this is Labor Day in Austin. Fall color doesn't begin until Thanksgiving in Austin. This is the result of the worst drought Texas has ever recorded, the new Drought of Record, 2011. Some of these trees died, some were just defoliated. This drought was the lowest rainfall year Teas has ever received, and in Austin there were 90, 100-degree days, where the twentieth century average was 11.5 days per year. Several homes involved of 11 destroyed in the Pinnacle Fire, Austin, Texas April 2011. The fire occurred during a normally windy spring day during the regions new drought of record. Carol and Benny's, what remained after the Pinnacle Fire. The back of the house was gone and you can see the second floor hanging down in back of the sitting room. It was very unstable. Melton the engineer was able to talk Austin Fire out of demolishing the building. We braced the sagging floor and recovered everything. My home and family were personally impacted by the Pinnacle Fire in Austin that destroyed 11 homes in 2011, likely a record or close to it for one fire in Texas at the time. This image was taken from my roof as I was water hosing during the fire. The C130 was so close I almost missed it, literally 300 feet above my roof. Across the park from my house, my board member's home goes up. Benny and Carol. Bless you. Taken from my roof. C130 retardant drop. Thanks to the great spirit, a US Forest Service C130 was coincidentally laying over for the day at Austin's airport and plausibly could have saved the entire neighborhood of 500 homes as only 11 were burned, all before the C130 arrived. Squirrel, RIP Melton on his house in Oak Hill during the Pinnacle Fire that destroyed 11 homes in 2011 during Austin's new Drought of Record, the worst drought ever recorded in the region. An Austin American Statesman photographer captured the moment. Melton's wife, daughter and cats had evacuated. The firefighters told Melton they could not require him to evacuate. Carol and Benny's place. Carol is one of my board members and a neighborhood organizer. Carol and Benny's master. Melton and friends recovered the rosewood furniture after bracing the floor. Never what one wants to see on ones neighborhood street. The Pinnacle Fire, Austin 2011, 11 homes destroyed, a plausible record for Texas at the time Fallen trunks and limbs leave ghostly impressions when they are completely consumed. Pinnacle Fire April 17, 2011, Oak Hill Texas, an unincorporated suburb on the southwest side of Austin. Eleven homes burned in the Pinnacle Fire in Oak Hill, southwest of Austin, in 2011. The aftermath of the Pinnacle Fire, Oak Hill Texas, a suburb southwest of Austin. It was caused by the new Texas Drought of Record in 2011. Fallen limbs and trunks leave ghostly paths when completely consumed. Also note the stump-hole in the left foreground, where a cedar stump burned below ground. Ghost trees in a burned forest have their own beauty, regardless of the cause. Their beauty is not just in their starkness and the simplicity of colors, it is in the promise of a new forest. This is a classic oak juniper woodland in Central Texas, with Ashe Juniper and Live Oak as the two predominant species,. An extreme fire burns hot enough to literally melt a canoe. This puddle of aluminum was my neighbor's canoe. The Montecito Debris Flows in Santa Barbara County. It happened after the Thomas Fire, at the time in 2018 the largest fire in California history at 282,000 acres. In the last four years, seven fires have exceeded the Thomas Fire record with the largest at over 1 million acres. Twenty-eight died in the Montecito debris flow. One woman survived, floating on this mattress in her bedroom. Montecito debris flow. This was once a two-story house. The Montecito Debris flow was caused by heavy rains after the Thomas Fire in Santa Barbara County in 2018. Twenty-eight died. The Thomas fire was the largest in California history in 2018 at 282,000 acres. Since, seven fires have beaten that 2018 record with the largest at over 1 million acres. Montecito Debris Flow. The west end of this house was taken by mud and boulders. Note the boulders, two on the left and one on the right. These boulders are a tiny fraction of the boulders that came down with the debris flow. Montecito debris flow after the Thomas Fire. Note the six ton boulder and missing wall. The homes in these photos were on the very edge of the flow. Those adjacent the creek are completely gone. This is where the 28 fatalities occurred. The seven largest wildfires in California history have occurred in the last four years. Eighteen of the top 20 since 2003, The two 1 million acre fires in 2020 and 2021 each tripled the record Thomas Fire in 2017. Montecito debris flow after the 2017 Thomas Fire. No cleanup has been done at this home but the street was cleared. Tubbs Fire, Coffey Park, Santa Rosa, 2017, 5600 structures destroyed, more than doubling the previous record in 1991. I couldn't count the number of pets, lost, found and reunited. It was all I could do to create these images. Tubbs Fire, Coffey Park, Santa Rosa, 2017, 5600 structures destroyed, more than doubling the previous record in 1991. Reunited, found and lost. By far, most were cats. I don't know why. Tubbs Fire, Coffey Park, Santa Rosa, 2017, 5600 structures destroyed, more than doubling the previous record in 1991. It was a miracle that any creatures survived this firestorm. A lone Christmas tree. This was once a dense-packed single family housing subdivision. Tubbs Fire, Coffey Park, Santa Rosa, 2017, 5600 structures destroyed, more than doubling the previous record in 1991. A basketball goal and mailbox are the only remnants of hundreds of homes that once occupied this residential subdivision in Coffey Park, a suburb of Santa Rosa, after the Tubbs Fire in 2017 destroyed over 5,600 structures, more than double the previous record from 1991. Camp Fire, Paradise California, 14,000 homes in 6 hours, 2018. The residence shown here includes a fireplace on the left. One can often tell where the kitchen was by the large pile of rusted sheet metal from former appliances. Camp Fire, Paradise, California 2018, 14,000 homes burned in 6 hours. So often, all that remains is a fireplace, a burned car or two and a bunch of twisted metal that used to be appliances and air conditioning and heating systems. Camp Fire, Paradise, California 2018, 14,000 homes burned in 6 hours. It's hard to tell a residence from a business. This one had parking out front. It appears to have been a residence at one time. Camp Fire, Paradise, California 2018.Notice some of the trees survived, This was a curious firestorm. Infrared heat ignited homes from storm generated winds and horizontal flames, but some places where the flames were not blowing, the woods survived. Only ten percent of homes survived in the entire town of Paradise, population 26,000 in 2010, 2,034 in April 2019 in a door to door count. These three chimneys were from three of 14,000 homes and 5,000 business and commercial buildings burned by a climate change-caused fire in 6 hours in 2018. Paradise California: where fires are burning 400 degrees hotter and not because of excess fuels from fire suppression policy. Pinnacle Fir, Oak Hill, (Austin) Live Oaks will regrow from their roots after an extreme fire, but the Ashe juniper (cedar) will not. Pinnacle Fire, Austin 2011, Drought of Record. The first drop went into the park adjacent our house, 200 feet from our kitchen. It was a perfect drop and plausibly saved our house. University of Texas fire researchers found that live fuel moisture was almost identical to dead fuel moisture. This just doesn't happen in our old climate. Paradise California, Camp Fire 2018, 14,000 homes burned in 6 hours. One can often tell where the kitchen was by the piles of rusted sheet metal. Paradise Fire. All that remained of the Calico Kitchen. Main street in Paradise was obliterated. When we shot here there were no fast food establishments, no gas stations, but the CVS had been rebuilt. The things that survive fires... But what's more - the things that survive firestorms... This auto shop; I am pretty sure this was an auto shop because most businesses were not identifiable. In this photo is it not that the auto shop sort of survived, it's the Epic Fail billboard in the background that survived... An unknown business in Paradise after the Camp Fire. This really was a very strange firestorm. The palms survived, the power lines and many trees survuved, but 90 percent of the buildings in town burned, 17,000 in 6 hours. CalFire said the flames travelled horizontally in the big Santa Anna wind that drove the conflagration. Expect surprises, our climate today is no where near what it once was. These fires, according to CalFire, are burning 400 degrees hotter. Most debris are unrecognizable. If they are in a residential or commercial area, pretty much they are residential or commercial debris, but simply standing there and looking at them, it's hard to make sense out of the chaos. Paradise. California, Camp Fire, 2018, 14,000 homes burned in 6 hours and a total of 19,000 structures. This was a commercial establishment as can be seen by the parking spaces and two yellow bollards on the left and the parking space stripes. But what kind of commercial establishment it was, is as difficult to say as this disaster was catastrophic. You see the terra cotta, the wheel barrow, and know this was a single family residence. Fourteen-thousand residential homes were burned in 6 hours during this wildly unprecedented event. CalFire says fires are burning 400 degrees hotter because of drier fuels and stronger winds as our planet warms. A couple of filing cabinets are on the left, nothing more recognizable. Another unknown commercial establishment. It was a bit less disturbing shooting the commercial establishments on the main drag. When we were shooting in the residential area it felt as if we were intruding. One can't really say the personal belongings of those 17,000 homes that burned were the reason, virtually nothing was recognizable, it just feel different. their souls were still there; the ghosts of their souls in the ghosts of their homes. Across the city were numerous work crew cleaning up every single one of the 19,000 burned structures. Each crew had at least one dozer and loader servicing a long queue of dump trucks. The debris is hauled by what appears to be hundreds and hundreds of dump trucks to designated burn debris landfills at communities around Paradise. FEMA USAR Marking: Federally Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) - the bottom number is number of bodies found. When something is recognizable, it's amazing to realize the things that can just simply disappear. Paradise convenience or liquor store. Somebodies grandmother's hollyhocks bless the scene of the greatest wildfire known where 14,000 homes burned in 6 hours in Paradise, California. The canopy over the truck and the gas meter in front are the only recognizable items at this burned residence in Paradise. Shooting Paradise was one of the toughest assignments I have ever experienced. Very few natural events on this planet result in such total and complete destruction. It is hard to visualize 14,000 homes burned, let alone in 6 hours. This is Paradise California after the Camp Fire in 2018. A house was here. You can see the washing machine where the laundry room was. That's a metal garage door. CalFire says wildfires in California are burning 400 degrees hotter because of drier fuels and higher winds all caused by climate change. Notice the propane tank on the left. This is a safety precaution. The tanks sometimes still have propane in them and have been weakened by the fire, so they are pulled out of the debris by hand to prevent risk of equipment bursting them. Another residence. At this one, large trees have been cut in front of the house to facilitate debris removal with heavy equipment. They scrape the site clean, concrete foundation and all. Very few things were recognizable in Paradise, but when they were, their meaning was profound. How did that '57 Chevy pickup survive? One of hundreds and hundreds of dump trucks working on clearing debris. Paradise California, Camp Fire 2018, 14,000 homes burned in 6 hours... A child's stuffed unicorn, another miracle of survival. We found this one like the rest of the miracles, in the middle of thousands of burned homes with zero homes that were not burned. The Paradise fire disaster was the largest disaster I have ever seen with 14,000 homes and 19,000 structures destroyed in 6 hours in an unprecedented firestorm driven wild by warming. Fires are burning 400 degrees hotter according to CalFire, and Santa Anna wind storms are at record durations. Fire scientists are now saying that warming-caused record fuel dryness has overwhelmed the excess fuels response in the cause off these astonishing fires. While forest professionals continue to insist excess fuels are responsible for the fires, this is not what the fire scientists say. Dryness from perpetual climate change drought has created fuels so dry that fires are burning 400 degrees hotter, winds are greater, fire ignition is greater because of higher temperatures and lower humidity, nighttime fire is persisting because of lower nighttime humidity, and fire indexes are at unprecedented levels. Wildfire area has skyrocketed in the last half decade to as much area as burned in pre-European times, only in 2020, CalFire alone spent $2.3 billion trying to put them out vs. $0 spent in pre-European times. $$$ spent does not include US Forest Service spending. Dryness from perpetual climate change drought has created fuels so dry that fires are burning 400 degrees hotter, winds are greater, fire ignition extreme, nighttime fire is persisting, and fire indexes are at unprecedented levels. There were 106 deaths directly attributable to the Paradise fire in 2018. CalFire says there were 85 direct mortalities from the Camp Fire that burned 14,000 homes in 6 hours in 2018 in Paradise California. The locals told me 106. Locals build these crosses and name them for the deceased. Friends, relatives and others honor those no longer with us with special trinkets and remembrances. These crosses were set up on the edge of town on one of the main roads in. This is just the beginning. The fires are now burning as much area in California as burned in pre-European times, only CalFire, not counting USFS, spent $2.3 billion fighting fires in 2020, vs $0 in pre-European times. One sees these painted rocks here and there now days, but these were different. I see these and other similar remembrances and words of hope at every catastrophe I shoot. I found these at a church in the middle of town, one of the very few buildings in Paradise that did not burn. Faith rocks, hope rocks, courage rocks, heal rocks. When one makes a hope rock and leaves it somewhere, they leave a part of themselves with the offering. The unfathomable forces that created this never before seen catastrophe in Paradise, California in 2018, were allowed by a climate change caused wildfire that destroyed 14,000 homes in 6 hours. Andrew Burt. Bless you, your family and friends. Herb Derman RIP Helen Pace RIP The sorrow at this place remained. This is where the locals had put up all the crosses - 106 crosses, not the 86 that CalFire says is the official death toll. We were in Paradise two days. The first was a Saturday. The main road through town was non-stop dump trucks hauling debris out of town. The hauling was maybe 70 percent of the traffic; a line of dump trucks in both direction to the horizon. Elizabeth Gall RIP. What does one do when their town has been destroyed? Loiene Rios RIP Our second day in Paradise was a Sunday. All the cleanup crews had a needed day off. Almost nobody was in town. The silence paid homage to the lives lost and to the families and homes destroyed. No gas. No fast food. No groceries. No hardware store. One Walgreens. Unknown Mortality RIP Ladybug hope stone. Rose Farmer RIP Phyllis and Chris RIP
