It’s not to say reckless is OK, but delay and hesitancy over the unlikely can be just as bad.

This isn’t going to show statistically up in small towns or even counties. Maybe in very large metropolitan areas you’d have a large enough sample size — but even there I suspect only the top three or four largest departments individually are big enough.

While I understand there are other factors usually cited — build up from years of suppression, changing weather patterns, invasive species, etc., if you look at our pattern of the size of wildland fires here: http://www.wildfiretoday.com/news/2009/3/30/large-fire-management-in-2009.html you’ll note the big increases start around 1990.

Anyone whose been around the fire service that long knows the late 1980s was when the major “safety” pushes were hitting full stride. Whether it was NFPA evolving to incorporate safety into their fire service related codes, to ICS, to modern bunker gear, Firefighter certification becoming expected, etc, etc.

I think it’s a legitimate question to ask if the size, severity, and firefighter deaths associated with wildfires are increasing because of the hesitancy and delay from “safety.” It definitely correlates, the question becomes if it’s a causal relationship.

I haven’t looked into the statistics on the structural side.

It’s not to say reckless is OK, but delay and hesitancy over the unlikely can be just as bad.

This isn’t going to show statistically up in small towns or even counties. Maybe in very large metropolitan areas you’d have a large enough sample size — but even there I suspect only the top three or four largest departments individually are big enough.

While I understand there are other factors usually cited — build up from years of suppression, changing weather patterns, invasive species, etc., if you look at our pattern of the size of wildland fires here: http://www.wildfiretoday.com/news/2009/3/30/large-fire-management-in-2009.html you’ll note the big increases start around 1990.

Anyone whose been around the fire service that long knows the late 1980s was when the major “safety” pushes were hitting full stride. Whether it was NFPA evolving to incorporate safety into their fire service related codes, to ICS, to modern bunker gear, Firefighter certification becoming expected, etc, etc.

I think it’s a legitimate question to ask if the size, severity, and firefighter deaths associated with wildfires are increasing because of the hesitancy and delay from “safety.” It definitely correlates, the question becomes if it’s a causal relationship.

I haven’t looked into the statistics on the structural side.