Writer, fire guy (aka pyromantic), exploration historian, urban farmer. Recent books include "Pyrocene Park" and "Five Suns: A Fire History of Mexico." Website: www.stephenpyne.comhttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3mrgipqwpuk22Irresistible contrast - we don't need Deep Space Observatories looking out to the stars to understand Earth's status in the galaxy. We just need to look around us. Earth is the fire planet. None else like it. https://www.wired.com/story/spanish-wildfires-nasa-deep-space-observatory/24 Jul 2026 23:24 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3mrgipqwpuk22https://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3mq66adwmuk2uIn 1928 Rene Magritte imagined the landscape on fire (Le Paysage en feu). A century later that ring of fire looks like a prophetic lens on Europe's Pyrocene.08 Jul 2026 22:30 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3mq66adwmuk2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3mq2pqkfrdk2nWildfire in southwestern France - not a new phenomenon, but not a welcome one either. Here's one of several fire paintings by Etienne Mondineu (ca. 1901).07 Jul 2026 13:32 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3mq2pqkfrdk2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3mpqtcamp7c2vA year ago the Dragon Bravo fire started (discovered on Fourth) - largest fire on record for the Kaibab Plateau and the ruination of the North Rim's developed area. The promised review is still not released. Anyone else think the agency is trying to just run out the clock?03 Jul 2026 15:09 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpqtcamp7c2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3mpojglvr5s2gHeat domes now, fires to follow. For historical background to Europe's fire scene, Undying Fire is published! 40% the length of Vestal Fire; half of it abridged and updated from VF, and half new and reconceptualized. Univ. of Washington Press even offers a 40% discount (code WAUT).02 Jul 2026 17:07 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpojglvr5s2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3mkdomb4glk2jIn recent decades 1998 has been season of record for the Southeast - looks like it's getting a challenger. The year was also noteworthy for the smoke that poured across the southern US from Mexico's 'temporada catastrofica' which led to major reforms in policy and programs.25 Apr 2026 18:35 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkdomb4glk2jhttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3mhypmxds222kResearching for a fire history of the Kaibab Plateau - my response to the Dragon Bravo fire -I found the jobs and pay for fed firefighters in 1946. You could be a legit flunky (paid more than an unskilled firefighter). Glad to see smokechasing as a distinctive category. Highest paid? Head cook.26 Mar 2026 23:03 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3mhypmxds222khttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3mhc5fbfcis2nTall Timbers was on the national register - a loss all around. I had the privilege of serving on the board for 3 years. Not just a place but an exemplar of fire and land management. https://wildfiretoday.com/fire-burns-historic-building-at-key-fire-research-complex/17 Mar 2026 23:38 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3mhc5fbfcis2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3mh6jdr6ntk2rWith Nebraska burning, it might be time to post some historic images of fire control on the Plains. Start with firebreaks installed in the Sandhills - double plowed lines with the interior burned out.16 Mar 2026 13:02 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3mh6jdr6ntk2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3mcf7j4thvk2bBefore GIS there were fire atlases - all analogue, with printed topo maps, data entered with heavy colored pencils, hard bound in canvas. Here's one from the Kaibab National Forest that was rescued, scorched, from a fire in the supervisor's officer. A fire(d) atlas?14 Jan 2026 13:48 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3mcf7j4thvk2bhttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3m7kohwpf2k2jO'Connor is among the best journalists writing about fire. And the New Yorker? Who would have predicted it would regularly publish pieces on fire? Amazing fire, insightful essay. https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/what-america-can-learn-from-its-largest-wildfire-of-the-year09 Dec 2025 13:44 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3m7kohwpf2k2jhttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3m3cxjmni2c2pAs reports tally up the 2025 fires, here's a long view back. I've updated and abridged Vestal Fire - now 40% as long, with half the new text completely rewritten, reorganized, and reconceptualized. The narrative still includes Russia. Should be published in spring, 2026.16 Oct 2025 14:24 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3m3cxjmni2c2phttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3lwsdvze5ys2zThread: August 20, the anniversary of the Big Blowup, a catalyst for the American way of wildland fire. (top) Post-season map of the 1910 season, with the Blowup circled in red. (bottom) Photo of the mine adit where ranger Ed Pulaski held his crew at gunpoint.20 Aug 2025 02:09 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3lwsdvze5ys2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3lw5rhgqqjk2gShouldn't be a surprise - the fire practices of indigenous peoples in the highly fire-prone SW could locally override even climate signals. But that is what received understanding claimed. Here's the data to bring the Ndee into alignment with other premodern peoples. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.250916912211 Aug 2025 21:46 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3lw5rhgqqjk2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3lw2h5agemc2iThread. Yet another avatar for Dragon Bravo - burning an isolated mesa in the Canyon, this time The Dragon itself (one of the Canyon's most apt placenames).10 Aug 2025 14:03 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3lw2h5agemc2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3lvy3jvmk7k2wDragon Bravo keeps reincarnating - now it's a Canyon fire, sending a giant talon eastward from the Walhalla Plateau across the Canyon at its widest. Always had a Canyon fire or two each season, but - really?09 Aug 2025 15:30 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3lvy3jvmk7k2whttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3lvc6u3vn3c2sIn grad school I studied history of science, geomorphology, American West, and intellectual-cultural history, all aligning with the history of exploration, of which Great Ages makes a conceptual capstone. When I decided to write fire, my exploration stuff was my quasi-model. Just released in pb31 Jul 2025 22:31 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3lvc6u3vn3c2shttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3lvboamkvec2fQuite a summer for European fire. I'm reminded of a passage from A.C.Clarke's 2001: "Beyond the reaches of sea and land and air and space lay the realms of fire.." Not a bad account of the maturing Pyrocene. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/27/greece-enlists-help-from-european-allies-to-tackle-raging-wildfires?CMP=greenlight_email31 Jul 2025 17:34 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3lvboamkvec2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3lv6k7ye2js2qThread on Dragon Bravo, which continues its serial reincarnations. Began as lightning fire in confine and contain mode (escaped). Morphed into urban fire (incinerated park's developed area). Swelled into proto-megafire (blew over major containment line). Now a free-burning megafire.30 Jul 2025 11:44 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3lv6k7ye2js2qhttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3luyk7eq4yc2oDragon Bravo fire - blowing, going, gone. The Kaibab Plateau as microcosm of Earth, consumed in a slow-motion Ragnarok. This is where my life as a scholar on fire began. There is no way I cannot not take on this fire as a project and try to give it context - would be professional malfeasance.28 Jul 2025 02:28 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3luyk7eq4yc2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3lupmj7rg7s27A fire that seemed to begin as a demo of how not to do confine-and-contain, complete with urban conflagration, is evolving into a master class on big-box-and-burn. Interesting cameo of the American wildland fire scene. https://inciweb.wildfire.gov/incident-information/azgcp-dragon-bravo-fire24 Jul 2025 13:15 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3lupmj7rg7s27https://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3ludvoweols2qWondering what I might say about the WU scene now that it has gotten so technical (a good development, actually). Maybe contribute to its redefinition? How about - Owning the WUI: HIZ, HERZ, ITZ [https://www.stephenpyne.com/blog]19 Jul 2025 21:27 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3ludvoweols2qhttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3lmj2uoqxgk2pAnother round with poop in the coop - another free-associating parody....11 Apr 2025 03:22 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3lmj2uoqxgk2phttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3lmghw3pwos2xAmazing how the mind free associates when cleaning up chicken and sheep poop ...10 Apr 2025 02:37 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3lmghw3pwos2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3lknn6xz5us2iAmid wildfires and political arson - a memento from a gentler fire era. A smokechaser lamp (yes, it works). What happens when a crew sits around the fire cache during a season-ending storm.18 Mar 2025 12:10 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3lknn6xz5us2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3lkiulpbdak2zFor those who would prefer to hear rather than read the fire history of Mexico, Five Suns audio is 50% off. Same great narrative. https://www.audiobooks.com/promotions/promotedBook/803900/five-suns-a-fire-history-of-mexico?refId=18333816 Mar 2025 14:39 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3lkiulpbdak2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/sjpyne.bsky.social/post/3ljn3s3j6as2dFennimore Cooper's 1830s social novels center on Aristabulus Bragg, who thinks everything can be bought and sold and he should have most of it, and Steadfast Dodge, who does "not know his own meaning, except as he felt envy of all above him.” Brag and Doge - with us still.05 Mar 2025 13:33 +0000at://did:plc:mfk3ah6qycadicgfc66usgui/app.bsky.feed.post/3ljn3s3j6as2d