Nova Accompanies the Arrowhead Hotshots During One of the Worst Fire Seasons Ever to Learn Why America is Losing the War On Wildfire

ARCHIVED 2002–2016: Originally distributed via the eWire press wire service. Preserved as historical record.

SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE |

Conservation & Wildlife

Corporate Responsibility

Science & Technology

Syndication Partners

**************************************************************************

E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE

**************************************************************************

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Nova Accompanies the Arrowhead Hotshots During One of the Worst Fire Seasons Ever to Learn Why America is Losing the War On Wildfire

MASSACHUSETTS, BOSTON, Apr. 8 -/E-Wire/Business Wire/-- NOVA PRESENTS FIRE WARS, Narrated by Stacy Keach, Tuesday, May 7, 2002 from 8 to 10 PM ET on PBS, www.pbs.org/nova/fire

The winter of 2002 has been one of the driest on record, making this summer possibly one of the worst fire seasons ever. For expert interviews to find out what's in-store for your area contact Jonathan Renes at [REDACTED-PHONE], [REDACTED-EMAIL]

Every year uncontrollable wildfires ravage the American West, and every year armies of firefighters mobilize to save threatened wilderness and communities. On Fire Wars, narrated by actor Stacy Keach, airing Tuesday, May 7, 2002, from 8 to 10 PM ET on PBS, NOVA accompanies the men and women of the Arrowhead Hotshots who are on the front lines to keep America safe. NOVA pairs with the Hotshots during the summer of 2000, one of the most destructive wildfire seasons ever in which more than 6 million acres burned.

The summer started with the tragedy in Los Alamos, New Mexico, when a prescribed burn designed to consume excess fuel spread out of control. Over the next weeks, the fire forced the evacuation of twenty thousand people, destroyed hundreds of homes, and threatened the nation's premier nuclear lab. But while policymakers and scientists were looking at what went wrong in Los Alamos, the fire season picked up considerable steam.

The Arrowhead Hotshots are one of seventy elite crews in the United States that take on the most dangerous wildfire assignments. "Being Hotshots and being the best, does not mean that you don't get hurt or killed," says Arrowhead supervisor Brit Rosso. "Hotshots end up going to the places where the terrain, fire behavior, or fuel make the fire very difficult to fight."

The NOVA team filmed the Arrowheads as they worked on the biggest fire of the season, the Clear Creek fire in Idaho, that burned for almost two months. On one unforgettable afternoon, this fire escaped and burned twenty thousand acres in just three hours.

Fire Wars includes frightening scenes shot by the Arrowheads themselves as they waited, trapped and surrounded by a crown fire that lit up entire trees like torches and sent swirling tornadoes of flame skyward.

The program also looks back at a century of fire policy to explain how we got into this predicament. The war on wildfire dates from the devastating fire season of 1910 when millions of acres of the northern Rockies burned, entire towns were destroyed, and scores of firefighters died. Determined not to suffer another such tragedy, government officials adopted a policy of 100 percent fire suppression.

Technology and manpower provided improved weapons to battle the flames. But the fires continued, including the terrible Mann Gulch blaze in Montana in 1949, and the worst wildland firefighting disaster in U.S. history, the Storm King Mountain fire in Colorado in 1994, where fourteen elite firefighters died in a twenty-minute period.

In recent decades, land managers and ecologists have begun to recognize that too little fire can also be a problem. Many of our most cherished landscapes--from the majestic groves of the giant sequoias to the marshy landscapes of the Everglades--depend on fire to recycle nutrients and maintain healthy ecosystems.

"Believe me," says Neil Sampson, national wildfire consultant, "in the next decade we're going to see many, many years like 2000--very possibly some that are quite worse."

Editors Note: Photography and other press information is available at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/promo/fire.html

Jonathan Renes, WGBH, [REDACTED-PHONE], [REDACTED-EMAIL]

http://www.pbs.org/nova/fire

**************************************************************************

To Transmit Your News Over E-Wire, visit http://www.ewire.com or

call 1-[REDACTED-PHONE]. E-Wire Is Broadcast To Millions Of Readers Worldwide

**************************************************************************