A COMMUNITY FIRE DISASTER AS A GALVANIZING AND FRAGMENTING EVENT

摘要

Large fires that burn through what is known in the U.S. as the "forest-residential intermix" are complex events that damage human infrastructure as well as cause natural resource damage. This paper presents the results of one case study of a particularly dramatic fire- the Rodeo-Chediski fire-which burned portions of several communities in the Southwestern U.S. in the summer of 2002. Interview data were collected in affected communities to examine the community/social impacts of the fire event. Although both ignitions in this particular event were human-caused, fuel conditions in the forest and around the affected communities had been a public issue for some years. The primary research questions addressed in this analysis revolve around the extent to which this particular fire event brought the affected community residents together and/or the extent to which it created tension and conflict. A major lesson drawn from this case is that while the biophysical reality of a major fire event is undeniable, the natural and technological aspects of such an event are sufficiently complex and ambiguous that there is much room for human interpretation of the "true nature " of the event. Our results suggest further that the interpretation of fire events have a profound influence on the human response. However, the interpretations and the responses that follow are shaped by structural attributes such as the economic and social histories of the communities affected, as well as the place-based versus disembedded systems enacted during and after the fire. The historical circumstances and current conditions of the communities were both constraining and enabling in terms of responses to the fires and their aftermath.