Last week, I headed up to the hillbilly sticks, in the no-mans land astride the Butte/Yuba County line for a helping of organic, home-cooked bullshit stew, with my longtime fire friend and living legend, Jim Klump. I was not disappointed! Jim and I talked for about 5 hours. Mainly Jim talked, actually, but that was … Read more
In the past decade, over 60% of Butte County’s forests, in Northern California, have been impacted by severe wildfires. The communities of Forest Ranch, Forbestown, and Magalia, while still largely intact, face extreme fire hazards. Without major thinning and other forest management work, they will all likely burn in the future. Around these communities, much … Read more
We often think of prescribed burns as being low-intensity events, where the flames creep slowly across widely-spaced trees, remaining on the ground, and killing very few of the trees in the area. However, intentional fires can also be applied under more intense prescriptions to kill thickets of dense, small trees, while still leaving the larger … Read more
Incident Management Teams: How Large Fires Stay Organized If you’ve followed wildfires for any length of time, you’ve probably heard phrases like “they’ve ordered a team” or “a Type 1 IMT is taking over tomorrow.” Behind those phrases is one of the most important – and least understood – parts of modern fire response: incident … Read more
Why is the East-West Pipeline in Saudi Arabia Important? The Strait of Hormuz Bottleneck: With the Strait of Hormuz facing blockades and disrupting major oil tanker routes, Saudi Arabia has relied heavily on its 800-mile East-West Pipeline. This critical infrastructure acts as a bypass to move oil overland directly to the Red Sea for export. … Read more
Here is a 9/12 afternoon update for the fire. Our initial 9/10 livestream and report are farther down on this page. Recent Fire Behavior As of 4:30, pm, on 9/12, the fire was spreading east, on the NE and SE flanks, with some spotting on the SE corner. Most of the rest of the fire … Read more
After big movements last week, the Timber and Plaskett Fires, burning in Big Sur and the South Coast, have been pretty subdued over the past 4 days. Our Lookout Livestream, last night, provides a map update showing the concentrated areas of fire heat and new spread, which has been very minimal. This doesn’t mean the … Read more
This Lookout Livestream covers a recent prescribed burn conducted by First Rain Land Stewards near Nevada City above North Bloomfield Road in a very productive mixed-conifer and hardwood forest (cedar, sugar pine, black oak, madrone) with heavy fuels and dense thickets in places, especially cedar. First Rain has grown from an organic farm into a … Read more
UPDATED 10am, 9/1/2026. In the Lookout Livestream and written analysis, below, we take a look at the long-term prospects for the Plaskett Fire, on the Central Coast. If the fire isn’t held from spreading farther south into the Silver Peak Wilderness, the broken topography, lack of recent fires, and roadless nature of the Wilderness, all … Read more
Zeke provides an update on the Timber and Plaskett wildfires in Big Sur and the Sinlahekin fire in Washington. MAP UPDATES: 8/29/2026 Big Sur/Timber Fire Updates As of morning of 8/29, the eastern side of the fire has very little spread with the cooler weather. The fire is largely at the tops of the ridges, … Read more
The Timber Fire in Big Sur’s Ventana Wilderness is entering a critical phase, with extreme weather, rugged terrain, and heavy fuels driving steady westward spread toward Manuel Peak which sits just inland of the Big Sur Valley. It is likely that the fire will get over the ridge, which has very difficult access and a … Read more
Fire ecologist and aerial infrared mapping pioneer Dr. Tim Ball joined The Lookout to break down how wind, fuel, and terrain shape wildfire behavior from Reno’s Hawk Fire to the Big Sur backcountry. Drawing on decades of flying fires and studying plant ecology, he and Zeke dug into Zephyr winds, cheatgrass invasion, and what historic … Read more
The Timber Fire, in Big Sur, is opening a new chapter. As fuel conditions dry out, and the fire leaves the area of coastal influence, it is now free to burn east thru the Ventana Wilderness. 9:30pm update The fire added about 1,000 acres between 5:30pm and 9pm, this evening. Here is our evening briefing … Read more
The Timber Fire, in Big Sur, continues to grow to the east. In the past 2 days, the fire has pushed about a mile deeper into the canyons of the Ventana Wilderness, where steep, broken terrain makes fighting the fire directly very difficult for ground-based firefighters. Helicopters have been used over the past 10 days … Read more
Achieving beneficial fire effects with either a prescribed fire or even a wildfire is all about the conditions. Fire doesn’t care about calendar dates. However, regulating agencies have often suspended burn permits on strict calendar dates, regardless of actual conditions. In the Klamath Mountains, in Northwestern California, locals have been burning straight through this summer, … Read more
North of Reno along Highway 395, the Bug Fire ignited near the agricultural inspection station and has since merged with the Fred Fire, with the Stallion Fire burning farther north toward Pyramid Lake. Scroll down for updates on fires in the Pacific Northwest! Current Situation The Bug–Fred portion: Initially ran hard to the east under … Read more
This report looks at the current conditions and expected fire behavior on the Timber Fire, in Big Sur, California. In the video, below, we use our trademark style of live mapping and storytelling to examine how wildfire works in Big Sur’s mishmash of unique environments, and how the terrain, fuels, and weather affect options for … Read more
Western Fire Season Enters Relentless Phase as New Incidents Erupt from Big Sur to the North Cascades The Western fire season has shifted into a fuel‑driven, landscape‑scale phase, with emerging and established fires stretching from California’s Big Sur coast through the Klamath River region, Eastern Oregon, and deep into Washington’s North Cascades. In our latest … Read more
Good morning. Today is August 8, 2006, and we’re reporting on fires in the Pacific Northwest. Yesterday was a deadly day for firefighters in the American West. Two helicopter pilots died on the Widemouth 2 Fire in Central Utah, and a dozer operator died the night before last, during a blowup on the Wrights Spring … Read more
The Grasshopper Fire spreads steadily toward Mount Hood, the Brewer/Box Springs Fires resist indirect attack, two fires that have been smouldering for weeks are cranking, now, and the well-established fires in North-Central Washington are mainly contained or not spreading much, with exception of Sinlahekin and Little Giant. We forgot to cover the emerging Wright’s Spring … Read more
This livestream walks through why the Pacific Northwest saw a relative slowdown in fire activity after an extremely active day on the 1st, and what the sudden shift in fire behavior reveals about weather, fuels, and urban wildfire risk. Watch the Lookout Livestream, here, or scroll down to read it. Weather Pattern: A Needed Breather … Read more
Pacific Northwest Morning Report: Fire-By-Fire Breakdown Recorded August 2, 2026 This morning’s Lookout briefing walks through an intense and rapidly evolving fire situation across Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Watch the full livestream, below, or scroll down for a written version, with static maps, organized fire-by-fire. Washington Fires Spokane Area Fires: Autumn Lane, Old Trails, … Read more
In tonight’s Lookout Livestream, we review maps and intel for the Pacific Northwest to try to get a handle on which fires might have the greatest potential for radical spread with tomorrow’s forecast for extreme fire spread weather conditions. Any fire which is currently still active has potential, but the following ones stand out: The … Read more
This episode of The Lookout Livestream discussed fires in France, Spain, and Eastern Oregon, highlighting the role that conifer plantations had played in fueling the extreme fire behavior currently being seen on large fires near Bordeaux. We note the Bordeaux region’s historical land management, which includes planting over 1,000,000 acres of dense conifer forest over … Read more
We opened our briefing on 7/26/2026 with a map of more than a million acres of active fire in Oregon alone. This post steps back from the incident-by-incident view to ask a bigger question: how does fire actually behave at landscape scale, and what does that mean for our real options in managing it? The … Read more
2-years ago, the destructive and massive Park Fire swept across Butte County, burning hundreds of homes. Today, we’re sharing the story and technical details of how a local homeowner and his son were able to save their home during an intense firefight on the first night of this fire, using an irrigation/firefighting system they had … Read more
It’s crazytown in the Pacific Northwest, today. The Rowe Creek Complex and Hay Creek Complex are basically connected now, and the Brewer and Box Springs have grown into the Rowe Creek Complex. The Beachcomb/Bench Fires are trying to eat Warm Springs, and the Shingle Fire added about 70k acres, yesterday. The Grasshopper Fire, east of … Read more
Welcome back to The Lookout! We have a fresh newsletter out this morning. Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter if you’d like to get our wildfire-related reporting and other writings dropped sporadically into your inbox! Several new fires have emerged over the past 24 hours in the Pacific Northwest, and grown large quickly under … Read more
