It’s Boom Times for These Daring Firefighter-Scientists
California’s wildfires have enabled them to study how climate-change is making matters worse, and to prepare Americans for a more fiery future.
Flames engulf a home during the Kincade fire in Healdsburg, California, on Oct. 27.
Photographer: Phil Pacheco/Bloomberg
As thousands of Sonoma County residents drove south Saturday, away from the Kincade fire, a team of researchers headed north toward the flames. About a mile from the inferno, they stopped to set up their equipment. In the distance, the fire glowed and leaped into the night sky.
“We were blown away by the flame-lengths,” said Craig Clements, director of the Fire Weather Research Laboratory at San Jose State University. “I mean, just hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of feet. It’s just crazy.”