Fire Weather: On the Front Lines of a Burning World

by John Vaillant

Before Jamie followed them, he had a moment alone with his fellow fire chief. “I told Darby Allen right in the parking lot, ‘You’re an idiot no matter what. If you evacuate everybody and nothing happens, you’re an idiot. If you don’t evacuate everybody and the fire comes, you’re an idiot. You’re going to be wrong and everybody’s going to hate you no matter what, so follow your gut. If your gut says, ‘We need to get people out of here,’ then get them out of there. If the fire doesn’t come, then, whatever—no matter what call you make, and no matter when you make it, everybody else is smarter. Everyone else would have figured it out before you. Everyone else would have done it different than you. Doesn’t matter. When you’re the guy that’s in charge, you just do what you know is the best in protecting people and you roll with that. That’s the job. The job is to do what’s right for people regardless of what the people think.’