Nevada County, CA –Wildfire-Ready Coalition of Nevada County (“Coalition”) will premiere a documentary, Standing Dead: Overstocked. Overgrown. Overdue on Saturday, March 28, 2–4 p.m. at the Don Baggett Theater at Nevada Union High School in Grass Valley.
The short documentary examines the North Complex Fire that devastated Plumas and Butte counties and how similar conditions exist in Nevada County. A panel discussion with residents and wildfire experts impacted by the North Complex Fire and the Dixie Fire will follow. The North Complex Fire ran 25 miles in seven hours, burned more than 210,000 acres, killed 16 people, and destroyed the town of Berry Creek and most of Feather Falls.
A Ticking Time Bomb
“Nevada and Sierra Counties are what I and others think of as a ‘green island’ of continuous, dense forest and heavy accumulated fuels. There have not been large wildfires here in a long, long time. We are like a ticking time bomb,” said Jo Ann Fites-Kaufman, retired fire scientist and Coalition President.
Recipe for Disaster: Canyons and Dense Forests
“We don’t want to be in Nevada County during the summer. The fire risk is too high. The dense forests and canyons are a lot like where the fires have occurred in Plumas County where we live,” said Bill Jacks, a lifelong Plumas County resident whose family survived a harrowing evacuation and director of Terra Fuego, (Prescribed Fire Contractor).
A panel discussion will describe the experience of living through fires that threaten their lives and devastate their communities, and the steps Nevada County can take to lessen the risk.
Panelists includeZeke Lunder of the Lookout Podcast, Bill Jacks, Mike Sherman (former Plumas Hotshot Superintendent), Jason Moghaddas (forester and Plumas County resident who lost his home in one of the fires), Tom Browning (local fire chief), and Jo Ann Fites-Kaufman (retired fire scientist).
Seeing is Believing
Bill Jacks urged the Coalition to take people to visit the devastated communities firsthand.
“You need to take Nevada County residents to Berry Creek so they see what could happen here. The topography and setting are very much like Nevada City, the San Juan Ridge, and western Nevada County,” he said.
Last fall, the Coalition organized a field trip for Firewise community leaders and emergency management officials to Berry Creek to witness the aftermath. One person on the field trip said, “The trip to see the aftermath of the large wildfires in the North State was extremely sobering.”
The documentary includes footage of the fire and the dramatic stand at the Berry Creek fire station where more than 115 people fought for their lives.
Tickets are free in advance, or a suggested $20 donation at the door.
About the Wildfire Ready Coalition of Nevada County
The Wildfire-Ready Coalition of Nevada County is a volunteer-driven nonprofit empowering neighborhoods with wildfire education, Firewise formation support, defensible space tools, and collaborative mitigation strategies. Its mission is to move communities from awareness to action while strengthening neighbor-to-neighbor resilience.