As wildfires blaze across the West, the Trump administration’s new fire chief is doubling down on a mandate that every fire on public lands be put out swiftly.
Under an order from Trump officials, federal firefighters this year are not allowed to let wildfires that spark in remote locations burn themselves out in order to boost wild ecosystems and incinerate fuels that cause future blazes.
“We’re getting criticized for that,” Wildland Fire Service Chief Brian Fennessy fumed in a Friday interview with the “Hotshot Wake Up”, a firefighting blog and podcast. “It’s like, OK, tell me where in the West you want to put fire on the ground?”
The newly created U.S. Wildland Fire Service is grappling with deadly fire conditions of low snowpack and precipitation amid searing hot temperatures across the West. Three federal firefighters died fighting a Colorado fire in June. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in April mandated a so-called full suppression approach for this year’s fire season, noting that under this year’s conditions, small fires could explode into more dangerous conflagrations if allowed to get a foothold.
