ABSTRACT Histories of aerial firefighting in British Columbia [BC]’s Forest Service often frame the mid-twentieth century as a time of transformation from an agency of patrolmen fighting fires with hand tools to a technological system governed by enlightened professionals. The aeroplane was a convenient commemorative shorthand for a classic story of technological progress and success in fire suppression. In this article, we listen closely to the oral histories of two forest rangers working on the fire line during the introduction of aerial fire suppression technologies in the mid-twentieth century. By analysing these interviews and related archival materials, we contribute to embodied and sensory histories of colonial fire suppression practices in BC and work to situate them in their specific institutional, social and cultural contexts. Close attention to the sensory experience of firefighting men shows how embodied, individual and situated knowledge shaped the work of fire control in the BC Forest Service.
ABSTRACT This article offers comparative environmental histories of wildfires in Portugal and South Africa from c .1860 to the 2010s, using a framework derived from Elinor Ostrom’s work on managing communal environmental systems and an emerging integrated approach to wildfire management. In doing so, it sets out ideas for writing more systematic comparative historical analyses of wildfires while also using the case studies to show how historical analysis enriches case study approaches usually focused on natural and social science data and perspectives. It considers the particular versus the general, investigating whether historical analyses of fire use, management and occurrence can generate more holistic apprehensions of wildfire scenarios.
