New Series Out Now: DANGER IN PLAIN SIGHT

First Episodes Out Now

 

Check out our new series, DANGER IN PLAIN SIGHT, about firefighters’ perspectives on wildfire hazards in Los Angeles. The series follows The Lookout Director, Zeke Lunder, on a journey from Altadena to Palisades alongside some of his most seasoned wildfire expert friends (see bios below). As they traverse the city on bikes, they grapple with historic and recent wildfire events and squarely face current and future fire danger. This series is for anyone who is curious about Southern California’s unique fire issues.

Watch the trailer. Tune in each Friday in August 2025 for a new episode.

Featuring:

The Lookout – Zeke Lunder

Zeke Lunder has worked in wildfire for almost 30 years. His experience includes two decades working as a wildfire mapping specialist and wildfire analyst on many of the largest fires in California history. Zeke has designed and managed wildfire fuels reduction projects, and worked as a prescribed fire instructor and burn boss. He started The Lookout during the Dixie Fire because there was a need for more accurate and accessible information about wildfire location and wildfire context. Zeke says, “We are drowning in misinformation, and even the good information which gets out often lacks any historical context or geographic specificity. It often seems that the public information officers on major wildfires don’t give the public enough credit for being able to understand nuanced messages or the operational details of how the fire is being fought.”

 

Retired Southern California CAL FIRE Fire Behavior Analyst & Intel Chief Tim Chavez

Tim Chavez has almost 50 years of operational firefighting and wildfire analysis experience. He has been one of CAL FIRE’s foremost fire behavior experts over the past several decades, having worked on most of California’s largest and most destructive wildfires, including the 2018 Camp Fire. Tim spent his career in Riverside County, and retired as CAL FIRE’s Deputy Chief of Wildfire Intelligence. In this role, he helped establish CAL FIRE’s new Wildfire Forecast & Threat Intelligence Integration Center (WFTIIC).

 

Retired CAL FIRE State Home Hardening Chief, Fire Behavior Analyst & Forester Dennis O’Neil

Denny O’Neil recently retired after 35 years with CAL FIRE, where he worked as a forester and fire behavior analyst, in San Luis Obispo County. Denny retired as CAL FIRE’s State Chief of Home Hardening, responsible for helping roll out programs to reduce the flammability of structures, neighborhoods, and communities.

 

 

Former Hotshot and Current NASA FireSense Project Coordinator Harrison Raine

Harrison Raine worked as a federal wildland firefighter on Interagency Hotshot crews for several years before receiving a fellowship to study international approaches to wildfires around the world including in Canada, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, and Australia. Raine graduated with his dual master’s degrees in City and Environmental Planning from UC Berkeley and currently works for NASA’s FireSense Project, supporting the development of technology and science to better understand wildfires.

 

More Resources

Here are some additional resources related to the content of our LA Lookout Video Series: DANGER IN PLAIN SIGHT for any of our viewers who are interested in learning more and diving deeper. While we explore a lot of the complexities around wildfire in LA and living with fire in SoCal in our series, we do not offer–nor do we intend to be a source for–a comprehensive suite of resources or highly specific recommendations for fire recovery. For anyone affected by recent fires in LA, we recommend visiting the LA County Recovers website that hosts a wealth of resources and information.

 

The Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center’s website offers more information about the Griffith Park Fire Entrapment Fatalities of 1933.

 

Local Fire Departments and Resource Conservation Districts (RCDs) often have resources and services available to help you and your community live more safely with wildfire. The Los Angeles Fire Department has a number of educational videos and resources available on their website, including a host of wildfire-specific pages. The Santa Monica Mountains RCD offers a suite of wildfire and community resilience resources as well. 

 

Joining a community group like a Fire Safe Council, or even just seeking out available resources and information from them, is a great way to start to make changes in a coordinated way that can help us scale up solutions to living more safely with wildfire in the future. Information on the Los Angeles Regional Fire Safe Council and MySafe:LA can be found at wildfirela.org. One of our Major Supporters for this video series project, Fire Aside, partners with entities like those we have mentioned–fire departments, RCDs, and fire safe councils–to bolster the inspection processes for wildfire preparedness with their sophisticated software offerings.

 

CAL FIRE’s webpages offer a wealth of information and some interactive tools:

• Home Hardening
• Wildfire Home Hardening Guide
• Defensible Space
• Defensible Space In Drought
• Fire-Smart Landscaping For Enhanced Wildfire Safety
• Ready For Wildfire Self-Assessment

 

We also recommend checking out the Hazard Mitigation Methodology by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Wildfire Prepared Home, a Program of Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS).

Last, but not least, here are some key points about home hardening:

• A structure’s wildfire mitigation needs to meet or exceed the surrounding wildfire hazard and exposure to that hazard (see graphic below).
• Mechanisms that contribute to structure ignition include exposure to flames, radiant heat exposure or embers. 
• Emergency response capabilities usually are exceeded during major events and structures need to be able to withstand the wildfire exposure without firefighter intervention.
• Wildfire mitigations include implementing wildland urban interface (WUI) building construction standards or retrofitting older homes to a standard that can withstand a wildfire exposure and defensible space.  
• Homeowners should always consult their local building official and fire marshal for WUI building construction and defensible space standards. 

This series was made possible thanks to the generous support of our sponsors:

Premium Sponsor

 

Major Supporters

 

E-bikes and accessories provided by: