The Fires of Creation

Last night PBS’s American Experience aired “The Big Burn,” an hour-long documentary on the history of fire policy in the United States. It begins in August of 1910, when a fire in the Rocky Mountains burned through three million acres in just 36 hours. At the time, the U.S. Forest Service was a mere five years old but responsible for managing vast tracts of public land with little government support. So when a lightning storm ignited thousands of small wildfires in Idaho, media attention and public outcry forced President Taft to send help out West.

Ed Pulaski worked for the Forest Service near the town of Wallace when those small fires began collecting into a massive inferno. The townsfolk fled, and as the flames crept closer, Pulaski led his team of firefighters to an abandoned mine, saving many of them. In all, more than 85 men died battling the blaze. The survivors were heralded as heroes, and popularity for the Forest Service’s grew—as well as for the aggressive wildfire suppression methods that have paradoxically led to some of the worst conflagrations since.

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