The Wild Risks of Fighting Wildfires with Kate Dargan Marquis

The Adrenaline Zone

On today’s episode of The Adrenaline Zone, Sandra and Sandy are joined by Kate Dargan Marquis, who has made a career out of the complex and dangerous business of wildland firefighting. Kate kicks things off by discussing the structure of roles in the wildland firefighting world, the situations they respond to, and the training involved, including constant heat conditioning. She then steps back in time to share how she got into firefighting by volunteering as a smokejumper in the summer before college—one of very few women at the time—before discussing some of the challenges she’s faced more recently at the high level of the firefighting business. In particular, she talks about the tensions between reducing environmental impact and protecting lives and how that will be the central problem for firefighting in the next twenty to thirty years as climate change continues.

Kate then moves on to discuss the cycle of wildland fire and how the teams respond, describing in detail the processes that unfold on a bad fire day. She also addresses how risks are mitigated, from the uniforms that firefighters wear to the equipment they carry and how training focuses on awareness that fire can become unmanageable in an instant (especially since fires are burning more severely than they used to). This unprecedented fire behavior is taking a toll on today’s firefighters, and the group discusses mental health in the wildland fire community, including the rise in suicide rates and how firefighting is a less rewarding job than it once was. However, Kate notes that leaders and departments in the community are now acknowledging these issues and taking steps to help its members get support and treatment. And finally, Kate discusses her journey as a woman in the male-dominated world of firefighting and gives some advice for those interested in getting into this risky but valuable profession.

The Finer Details of this Episode:

• Wildland firefighting roles and training
• Risks and tensions in the firefighting business
• The cycle of wildland fire and how teams respond
• Risk, the unexpected, and mental health issues
• Kate’s experience as a woman in the firefighting world

Quotes:

“Imagine the sun is setting over the Pacific. It’s a massive fire out there. It’s a line almost a mile long of fire engines threading their way up the mountainside in the twilight and massive flames on the hill behind us, and it’s like, oh, this is so for me. I’m doing it.”

“When it comes down to the choice of prescribed fires or burnt homes, people will always say, ‘I’m not willing to take that risk.’ And so, it’s theoretical when we’re talking about it legislatively, but when it gets to communities, and they feel like they’re threatened, they want the firefighters there.”

“They’re out there for weeks at a time, repeatedly being deployed to large fires for lengthy periods of time, not able to get home, not able to rest. And I want to go back to the smoke environment that they’re operating in. Like, they’re not on assisted breathing. They’re breathing difficult environment toxins for weeks at a time. It’s a very real problem, and certainly diagnosed PTSD illnesses and suicide rates are way up in the wildland fire community.”

“I think if you talk to a lot of women who succeed in male-oriented professions, a lot of them have a similar story. If you can make it through the first years and find your footing, you know, if you can survive those first few years of figuring it out, you probably develop a respect and a camaraderie with those others.”

Links:

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Kate on LinkedIn