The Hotshot Wake Up

On Today’s Show: To Support And Subscribe: https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ Today, I cover the 2025 wildfire season by the numbers and compare them to last year. Total Fires (nationally and by region) Acres Burned (nationally and by region) Crew Orders Aircraft Orders Flight Hours UTFs Cancelations Drone Incursions, And More. I also cover the LEAF Act, which was introduced to ensure local co...

On Today’s Show: To Support and Subscribe 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ The Senate Committee on Aging held a hearing today in California to let residents testify on their experiences before, during, and after the Palisades fire. The hearing was conducted by Senator Scott of Florida and Senator Johnson of Wisconsin. Multiple people spoke about the day their homes were lost and what they...

On Today’s Show: To Support And Subscribe 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ As we enter the longest government shutdown in history, some Forest Service Employees are now being asked to come into work without pay. Major vacancies in high-level wildfire positions persist, as the Agency tries to fill critical positions internally. PacifiCorp Power in Oregon says they are facing liquidity issu...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe and support 👇https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ Shutdown pay funding update for the USFS and DOI. DOI has a longer runway of funding for wildfire resources, and the USFS is looking for a funding extension. We have reached the important date for the unification planning phase of the new USWFS, and the search for the new National USWFS Chief continues. Updates on a...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe: https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ Today, I cover all the wildfire activity across the nation and updates on incidents happening on wildfires. The PNW and California remain the hotspots, with lingering fires in Montana and Idaho. There was a dozer rollover in Washington, an engine rollover in California, and an update on the tree strike involving a hotshot crew i...

On today’s show: To Subscribe: https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ The question on the minds of many agency leaders and supervisors is how to build and train the new generation of wildland firefighters. Well, that’s just what firefighter and teacher Bryan Kerns is doing with his wildfire program, earning him the 2025 Tennessee teacher of the year. Bryan Kerns is the Fire Science teacher at Doby...

On Today’s Show: To support and subscribe: https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ OroraTech is a wildfire technology company that provides satellite detection, monitoring, fire spread modeling, and post-fire recovery data for wildfire managers. They recently signed a deal with the State of Idaho to provide these services statewide. CEO Martin Langer joins the show from Munich, Germany, to discuss...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe and support: https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ Today, I welcome the Fire Chief of the Angeles National Forest, Robert Garcia. Chief Garcia started his career as a seasonal firefighter, moved to working on Hotshot crews, became the Superintendent of Little Tujunga Hotshots, and rose to the position of Fire Chief. The Angeles National Forest is home to five Hotshot...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ Today, I welcome Fire Captain Robert Sepulveda Jr. to discuss the world of REMS. Robert is a Captain for Pasadena Fire and joined the FIRESCOPE Technical Search and Rescue Specialist Group   in 2020 and is Chair of the Rapid Extraction Module Support Subcommittee. Robert is certified as a Regional Task Force Leader, Technical...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe:👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ Today, I’m joined by Gabriel Mann, Director of Hotshot, to discuss the new allegations brought by a lawsuit in California yesterday regarding the events surrounding the Palisades Fire. These new allegations point the finger at the State of California and the water utility for their role in the Palisades Fire disaster. The laws...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ Six months ago, the Palisades and Eaton Fires rolled across communities in southern California, and the official cause of the Palisades Fire is yet to be confirmed. Work by the Washington Post and others suggests that the Lachman Fire may have rekindled, which began on New Year's Eve from fireworks in the same area. Briann...

On Today’s Show: To support and subscribe: 👇https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ Today, I welcome San Bernardino County Fire Chief Dan Munsey to discuss what he believes are the four biggest lies in the wildfire industry, and what the actual truths are behind those lies. The Four Lies the Chief Addresses: There is a large wildfire crisis. (Truth: We have a land management crisis.) There is a fi...

On Today’s Show: To support and subscribe: https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ 20-year-old Wess Roley has been named as the shooter in the Idaho Wildfire ambush that took place yesterday in Hayden, Idaho. New details have emerged about the suspect, which I cover. He allegedly has a past criminal record and mental health issues. Today, we remember the Granite Mountain Hotshots and the Yarnell Fi...

Idaho Wildfire Shooting Update: To support and subscribe: https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ The press conference has just finished, with new details on the incident. Two firefighter deaths were confirmed by the local sheriff, FBI en route, and SWAT on scene. Law enforcement says they are still actively taking fire from an unknown number of “well-prepared suspects.” The sheriff and firefighter...

On Today’s Show: 100% community supported, To Subscribe: https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ The public land sale proposal has been removed from the budget bill. Sen. Mike Lee said this morning that he may reintroduce the proposal, but will remove the sale of Forest Service land and significantly reduce the amount of Bureau of Land Management Land available for sale. A firefighter received seco...

On Today’s Show: To Support and Subscribe 👇https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ I cover the proposal to sell off up to 1.5% of public lands for housing developments. I am a firm believer that public lands are our greatest national treasure. I cover the full details of the plan, which expects to raise $10 billion, and further fund land management costs. But is it worth it? Full operational updat...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe and Support 👇https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ Today, I welcome Dr. Carrick Detweiler, founder and CEO of  Drone Amplified . They have developed the quadcopter drone and software platform used by the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, State Agencies, and others for aerial ignitions on wildfires and prescribed burns. We discuss how these platforms are bei...

On Today’s Show: I am 100% subscriber-supported, Thank you. 🙏To Subscribe: https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ John Mills moved to California and quickly came to realize the harsh reality of living in the wildland-urban interface. More out of necessity than anything else, he began working on the Watch Duty platform, a wildfire-tracking app, with Co-founder David Merrit. John and I discuss the...

On today’s show: To support and subscribe👇https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ Yesterday, Secretary Rollins and Secretary Burgum received their 2025 wildfire briefing in the Forest Service offices and signed a joint wildfire memo afterward. Further, Secretary Rollins issued a memorandum directing the USDA and Forest Service to take immediate action on wildfire response. This includes new direct...

On Today’s Show: To subscribe and support 👇https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/With wildfire couples starting another season and enduring the struggles that come with that, I thought it would be a great time to have a conversation about exactly this. Brittany Culbertson is a mom of two boys (17 & 20) and a proud Wildland Fire wife for 23 years. She has lived in northern Nevada for 24 years...

On today’s show: To Support and Subscribe 👇https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ These last couple of weeks, listeners have been asking for an episode of the recent Timber Executive orders on Timber management in the National Forests. So, I invited Sharon Friedman on the show, who has a wealth of knowledge as the former Assistant Director of NEPA for the USDA in the D.C. office. Sharon Friedman...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe and support: 👇https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ I welcome Jessie Thomas to discuss health and fitness through the fire season. Sometimes, you need to hack the system to make it work for you, as the food and nutrition provided are often subpar. So, Jessie provides solutions for how you make it through the year while maintaining your health and wellness. Jesse has...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe and support the show 👇https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ With recent developments in Oregon, Idaho, and California regarding their use of wildfire risk maps, the skyrocketing cost of insurance, and the reality of living in the Wildland Urban Interface, Stanford scholar and lawyer Micheal Wara joins the show to provide insight on where this all stands today. Wara...

On today’s show: To subscribe 👇https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ There have been ongoing discussions about major changes in the wildfire world for some time now. As significant changes are ongoing across the government, we get our first look at a draft executive order regarding a national wildfire service and more. This includes aviation and contracting changes, dispatching changes, and ulti...

On Today’s Show: To Subscribe 👇 https://thehotshotwakeup.substack.com/ Zeke Lunder is a Pyro-geographer. His parents fled the Bay Area for the hillbilly sticks of Northeastern California in the late 1970s, when the timber industry was still a major part of the local economy, and Zeke started working in the woods in high school on a Forest Service conservation crew. Zeke started his prescribed fir...