top of page

SPOTFIRE IMAGES

WILDLAND FIREFIGHTING PHOTOJOURNAL

PHOTOS AND VIDEOS BY MIKE MCMILLAN

ABOUT

Wildfires are more destructive today than when I began fighting them in 1988. Summers became fire seasons and fire seasons became fire years - harsher, longer, drier, and with more people living with the threat of wildfires to their homes and livelihoods. "It's fire season somewhere" has become the norm. Media coverage of wildfires today almost exclusively leans on tragedy, burning structures and devastated towns. I've experienced a fair amount of success limiting or preventing this type of destruction, working and documenting the work of wildland firefighters: federal, state, local, and volunteers too, across the west, north, south and eastward.
 

I worked four wildfire seasons from 1988 to 1990, and 1992 with USFS Santa Lucia Crew 3, based in San Luis Obispo, California. I worked three wildfire seasons from 1993 to 1995
as a USFS Los Padres Hotshot based in Santa Barbara. I worked 17 wildfire seasons from 1996 to 2012 as a BLM Alaska Smokejumper based in Fairbanks. Today I lead wildland firefighting resources as task force leader and as a public information officer.

San Mateo High School, CA 1985. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo CA: B.S. News Journalism, 1991. Boise State Univeristy, ID: Masters Certificate, Technical Communiucations, 2018.

Please contact me about image usage for publication.

 

mike mcmillan and wildfire photos and wildland firefighters and smokejumpers and hotshots
mike mcmillan and wildfire photos and wildland firefighters and smokejumpers and hotshots
mike mcmillan and wildfire photos and wildland firefighters and smokejumpers and hotshots
bottom of page