InHospitable

Phoenix — America's hottest and fastest-growing big city — is on the frontlines in the fight against drought, extreme heat, and wildfire. We bring you stories of how these global problems affect real Arizonans, and what is being done to solve them. This podcast series is supported by the Arizona Community Foundation and Intel.


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Fire Pt. 1: Fighting Angry Fires

Firefighter Riva Duncan
Riva Duncan spent 31 years working for the U.S. Forest Service fighting wildfires. Now, she works with Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, advocating for better pay, mental healthcare, and benefits for wildland firefighters. (Photo courtesy of Riva Duncan)
Resources
DC-10 tanker crew preparing for takeoff.
The crew prepares for takeoff in the cockpit of a DC-10 aircraft converted into a firefighter air tanker. The airplane can carry 9,400 gallons of fire retardant. Last year they dropped a company record 12 million gallons. (Photo by Anthony Wallace)
Converted interior of the DC-10 tanker.
The DC-10 once carried passengers, as many as 350 at a time. 10 Tanker spent $30 million converting the aircraft into air tankers. Their fleet of four are the largest active air tanker planes in the world. (Photo by Anthony Wallace)
Flight suits hanging in the airplane cabin.
The crew keeps their flight suits in the airplane's cabin, ready at a moment's notice. Directed by the U.S. Forest Service, on any given day they can end up being deployed to and sleeping in a wide range of locations. (Photo by Anthony Wallace)
Fire expert Susan Prichard.
Susan Prichard, a University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences fire expert, has studied forest and fire for twenty years and personally experienced wildfires in her own region of Washington. (Photo courtesy of Susan Prichard)
Contributor
Anthony J. Wallace

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The average area burned by wildfires in the United States annually has nearly tripled since the 1980s. But perhaps more importantly, those fires have gotten hotter, faster spreading, and more dangerous—placing the future of America's forests in jeopardy. In this first installment of our fire series, we look at how and why wildfires have changed so dramatically in recent decades, and we hear from firefighters about what it is like to fight them.