Restored Fire Info Websites

The Dixie Fire Support home page: a photo of a firefighter beside an engine with flames in the trees behind, a note that the page is put together by the people of Lake Almanor, links to the hotspot map and an infrared camera, and long lists of links under Dixie Fire News and Weather

November 2018 brought the Paradise Camp Fire, destroying the town of Paradise, near where I grew up. All I could do was refresh all of the websites and thermal imaging maps as the fire grew. I put those links together in a quick page I drew up, and registered the campfireresource.com domain. I can’t find the original code for that page anymore, only fragments and a list of links that I had stored elsewhere. I even let the domain lapse, but these days I want to keep these projects I made around, so I re-registered the domain and rebuilt something close to it from that list of links. It exists now as https://campfireresource.com.

In July 2021, we lived in the Lake Almanor area as Michelle worked as a traveling nurse in Chester, and I worked from a cute little rented house near the lake. The Dixie Fire ripped through, destroying Greenville, and we were evacuated to Chico. Again, there was not much to do, but I could make it easier for people to get information. I registered https://dixiefiresupport.com, and put together another list of links for friends and family. A list like that is easy to post in a text message or a forum post, and the site spread fast. The note I left at the top of the page still reads: “this page seems to be helping thousands of people per day. Which is great, since being evacuated, there’s not much to do except edit web pages.”

Which brings us to August 2026. Dad was evacuated due to the Bug Fire, just north of Reno, and my daughter was evacuated a week later due to the Hawk Fire. I created https://bugfireinfo.com, put all of the links I had there, used some AI help to update any evacuation statuses or news, and posted the page. I wrote about the traffic patterns as the usage peaked and I shared the website on Reddit and Facebook.

Some wildland fire researchers from UNR contacted me about the Bug and Hawk Fire sites, and we discussed these custom sites and current issues with emergency communications. There is a real strength in a custom URL that is obvious and can be easily shared. Wildfire communications in general has a lot of room for improvement, and I’m now working on some new ideas.

This is not a new concept for me. I’ve been making these websites since 2018 because it’s an effective way to share information in an emergency. I hope to continue working in this area to help where I can.