Zeke Lunder provided an update on the Dragon Bravo fire, which has been active for nearly a month and is now 8,000 acres. The fire has destroyed over 70 structures and is moving northeast under prevailing southwesterly winds. Firefighters have conducted firing operations to manage the fire’s intensity but face challenges due to extreme dryness … Read more
This video shares video, maps, and photos collected in the year since the Park Fire burned over 400,000 acres in Northern California, north of Chico, California. The audio for this episode was recorded on 7/31/2024, during an interview for the Blue Dot Report, a week into the fire. The Blue Dot Report is a science … Read more
UPDATE – Morning of 7/25/2025 The fire is now well-established in the Saddle Mountain Wilderness. It has not breached the 7/21-7/22 firing operations along the northern boundary of the Park into the Kaibab NF, though it has potential to sneak out of the wilderness back onto the Kaibab from the SE. The fire grew in … Read more
Cover photo courtesy of Six Rivers National Forest. Lookout Livestream Overview Maps Summary There was fairly subdued activity over the past 24 hours, with mainly slow, backing progression towards the community of Forks of Salmon. The fire is currently most active in McNeal Creek. The fire is generally not spreading very readily within areas burned … Read more
Here is our morning intel assessment livestream of the current situation on the Butler Fire, burning around Forks of Salmon, on the Salmon River, in NW California. These maps are based on infrared flights conducted at 11pm, on 7/20/2025. Cover photo courtesy of U.S. Forest Service – Klamath National Forest Facebook. The maps are pretty … Read more
Sorry for the small maps, I’m traveling today, no laptop! Here are some  infrared maps from last night at 9:41 PM, 7/19/2025. The fire did not spread aggressively down slope into Forks of Salmon as of the time of the mapping the fire was burning intensely on the upper slopes and had advanced significantly up … Read more
The firefighters continue to make good progress on the Green Fire north of Shasta Lake. They’ve now completed firing operations down the ridge between Rip Gut Creek and Fenders Ferry Road, and the firing operation is filling in back towards the main body of the fire. On the south flank of the fire, fire lines … Read more
After days of backing down toward the Salmon River from the south, the Butler Fire crossed the River on the afternoon of the 17th and ran up onto the north side of the canyon. Yesterday the fire continued to grow upcanyon on both sides of the River. It is well-established on the slopes above the … Read more
Introduction to Today’s Video Wildfire ‘severity’ describes the ecological effects of a fire. At a landscape-scale, severity is measured using satellite imagery. This process uses images of the vegetation from before and after the fire to create colored maps which show how much plant life is still alive after the fire. In this episode, we … Read more
Today’s Lookout Livestream We look at the potential for continued spread of the Green Fire, north of Shasta Lake, the Summit Fire, in the Marble Mountain Wilderness, near the town of Etna, California, and the Butler Fire, east of Somes Bar, on the Salmon River. Also, we take a first look at the Dragon Bavo … Read more
I was in a burn plan writing workshop at Chico State this week, and ran into retired US Forest Service leader, Patty Grantham. She is a Lookout fan, and said yes when I asked her to sit for an interview! We discussed her 41-year career. She detailed her tenure on the Klamath National Forest from … Read more
7/11/2025 – 4pm Intel Update – Green Fire. The fire has been much more active today than the past several days. Watch our livestream, below, and/or scroll down for maps and a quick update. From the 11:45am FIRIS flight, and webcams it looks like the pyrocumulus/column action has been on the south flank of the … Read more
The Green, Butler, and Summit Fires continue to spread in far-Northern California. We look at today’s events on each fire, and at the Neil Creek, Demming, and Elk Fires, in Southern Oregon. Today’s Livestream  Situation Status Hot weather has settled in over much of NorCal, under a ridge of high atmospheric pressure. This is … Read more
Zeke Lunder provided a detailed update on the Green Fire, Butler Fire, and Summit Fire in Northern California and southwestern Oregon. The Green Fire, between Redding and Burney, showed significant progression with a slope reversal in late afternoon allowing the fire to run up toward the Low Pass area, in the head of Low Pass … Read more
The Butler Fire is spreading freely across the steep and rugged slopes of the Lower Salmon River Watershed, in Northwest California. My friend and colleague, Will Harling lives at the bottom of the mountain, and is watching the fire spread toward his neighborhood. Rather than packing up and running, he is setting up to conduct … Read more
Our 7/6/2025 NorCal Fire Report provided a detailed update on the Green Fire, Butler Fire, and Summit Fires in Northern California. This episode was sponsored by QTAC, WATERAX Pumps, and FyreBx. The Green Fire, located north of Redding, has grown from 96 acres on July 3 to 1,100 acres by July 6, doubling in size … Read more
The Green Fire has been burning for several days in a remote area northeast of Shasta Lake, and poses some special challenges for firefighters. This fire is going to burn for a while, and could reach over 10,000 acres in size. Here is a link to our livestream for this article. Read the material below … Read more
{AI summary, edited lightly by Zeke} Zeke Lunder provides a detailed update on the Madre Fire in Northern California, which has grown to over 72,000 acres. Using satellite imagery and infrared data, he maps the fire’s progress, noting minimal growth between 11 AM and noon. The fire is most active near Caliente Mountain and has … Read more
{Written by a robot, skimmed by Zeke} Zeke Lunder discussed the active wildfires in Northern California on July 4, 2025. Key fires included 2 small fires in Butte County, the Green Fire near Round Mountain/Shasta Lake, the Horse Fire between Lakehead and Trinity Lake, the Helena Fire west of Weaverville, and the Summit, Butler, and … Read more
If you’ve followed our work, you’ve probably heard about my friend and colleague, Will Harling, who is a leader in bringing community-based prescribed fire back to the Klamath River after a century of fire exclusion and criminalization of native burning by local tribes. Locals on the River have been through a lot of fire, and … Read more
As the US Forest Service has lost internal capacity to get projects planned, awarded, and managed, it has become increasingly reliant on ‘partners’ – NGO agencies – to do a lot of the work Forest Service employees used to do. Until she was fired as a part of sweeping workforce reductions being carried out by … Read more
Current Situation The Hughes Fire started midday on 1/22/2025 east of Castaic Lake, California. It had grown to 9,000 acres by 6pm, and had spread vigorously to the west, driven by sustained NE winds and very low humidities. The winds are not severe enough to ground firefighting aircraft, and an enormous amount of water and … Read more
In this Lookout Livestream, we reviewed post-fire satellite imagery from Maxar and fire progression maps from Cal Fire Incident Management Team 2 to describe how the Palisades Fire spread, and the tactics used to contain it. The fire started near Skull Rock and quickly spread across Topanga Canyon Road and Palisades Drive. It advanced to … Read more
In this episode of The Lookout Livestream, Zeke Lunder and Michael Steinberg, a current CSUC pyrogeography student/storm chaser/videographer, reviewed mapping and on-scene videos captured by Michael during last week’s Palisades and Eaton Fires in Southern California. Steinberg documented the fire’s rapid spread, highlighting the critical role of embers and wind in igniting homes. He emphasized … Read more
We discussed the Palisades and Eaton Fires in Southern California, noting that both fires are mostly out despite ongoing wild weather. We highlighted the high-severity burn in vegetation-rich areas and the ecological benefits of lower-severity burning in the riparian zones. We talked about how the complex, bureaucratic post-fire cleanup process will roll out, based on … Read more
Since last night, the Palisades Fire has been quite active on the NE corner, between Topanga and the 405 corridor. Also, there have been active firing operations along the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains between Topanga and San Vicente Mountain Park. Tonight’s Lookout Livestream looks at today’s major events on the Palisades Fire, and … Read more
When homes are densely packed in alignment with the direction of strong fire-season winds, it is nearly almost impossible to cut enough brush to make the homes defensible. Fire burns from house to house, no longer a ‘brush fire’, rather it is referred to as an ‘urban conflagration’ or simply a ‘conflagration’. Wind-driven brush fires … Read more
10pm Update – New Fire Spread Toward 405 Freeway and San Fernando Valley After sunset today, the Palisades Fire, influenced by more north-westerly winds, has shifted towards San Fernando Valley and the 405 corridor, with significant activity in Mandeville Canyon. Firing operations were observed to secure control lines, but the fire crossed a retardant line, … Read more
Destructive Fires Are Not A New Thing in SoCal! We just wrapped up an interview with my longtime friend and colleague, Tim Chavez, about the history of large, damaging Santa Ana wind-driven wildfires in Southern California. Some areas around Malibu have burned 5 times in the past 60 years! A summary of the interview and … Read more
8pm, 1/9/2025 We just finished our evening livestream. It covers today’s fire activity. Tonight, after covering today’s basic fire action, we did an interview with journalist Susie Cagle about ways communities work together after major disasters. A summary of the fire situation and our interview follows the video, below. Summary Lookout Director Zeke Lunder, a … Read more