Wildfires spawn a firefighting big business

Check out the enviro team's own Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart's Big Burn investigative series on the growing "big business" of firefighting. The first story debuted Sunday, and tomorrow we get Part 2 --"Political Meddling and Wasteful 'Air Shows' " -- of the five-part series.

The pair have worked for more than a year, traveling around the country and as far as Australia, to report on these stories, which include multiple sidebars, graphics, video and fiery photos as part of the package.

A century after the government declared war on wildfire, fire is gaining the upper hand. From the canyons of California to the forests of the Rocky Mountains and the grasslands of Texas, fires are growing bigger, fiercer and costlier to put out. And there is no end in sight.

Sunday's story looked at the increasingly expensive and now highly-machinated efforts to battle these ever-growing blazes. It gives a snapshot of this big-business growth via last year's Zaca fire in Santa Barbara's backcountry, which was one of the most expensive wildfires ever fought by the U.S. Forest Service.

LIVE OAK COMMAND POST -- It was Day 42 of the Zaca Fire. A tower of white smoke reached miles into the blue sky above the undulating ridges of Santa Barbara's backcountry.

Helicopters ferried firefighters across the saw-toothed terrain and bombed fiery ridges with water. Long plumes of red retardant trailed from the belly of a DC-10 air tanker. Bulldozers cut defensive lines through pygmy forests of chaparral.

A few miles south, in a camp city of tents and air-conditioned office trailers, commanders pored over computer projections of the fire's likely spread, trying to keep the Zaca bottled up in the wilderness and out of the neighborhoods of Santa Barbara and Montecito.

Platoons of private contractors serviced the bustling encampment, dishing out hundreds of hot meals at a time from a mobile kitchen, scrubbing 500 loads of laundry a day, even changing the linens in sleeping trailers...

Tomorrow's story takes us even more behind the scenes:

Fire commanders are often pressured to order firefighting planes and helicopters into action even when they won't do any good. The reason: Aerial drops of water and retardant make good television. They're a visible way for political leaders to show they're acting decisively to quell a fire. Firefighters call them "CNN drops."

-- Tami Abdollah

Photo: A Sikorsky S-61 Fire King owned by Carson Helicopters drops water on the Zaca fire. About 60% of the Forest Service's wildfire expenditures last year went to the private sector. Credit: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Ellen Hilburn]

I cannot believe the level of fires ourt west in recent years. We just don't have that problem on the east coast. Wouldn't it be more economical to "water the forest" and prevent such horrific damage or is that not feasible?