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The State of Fire: Why California Burns
From San Francisco Chronicle best-selling author-illustrator Obi Kaufmann, a gorgeously illustrated exploration of fire in California.
Fire is an essential part of California's ecology. Humans have been using it to shape the California landscape for thousands of years. But today many Californians' relationship to fire is one of fear. Obi Kaufmann, author of the best-selling California Field Atlas, now How do we get right with fire? What makes fire essential to a healthy and biodiverse Golden State, and how do we benefit from its teachings? With the same solution-minded ethic as his much-admired The State of Understanding California's Most Precious Resource, Kaufmann presents fire as a force of regeneration rather than apocalypse. He considers the long history of ecological burns, the varied ways fire behaves across the state, and the lessons we can learn from California's largest fires of recent decades. Packed with Kaufmann's signature watercolor maps and paintings, The State of Fire confronts one of California most pressing social and ecological challenges. From this maelstrom Kaufmann emerges to share a deepened love for the natural world—and a refreshingly hopeful vision of California’s future.
Fire is an essential part of California's ecology. Humans have been using it to shape the California landscape for thousands of years. But today many Californians' relationship to fire is one of fear. Obi Kaufmann, author of the best-selling California Field Atlas, now How do we get right with fire? What makes fire essential to a healthy and biodiverse Golden State, and how do we benefit from its teachings? With the same solution-minded ethic as his much-admired The State of Understanding California's Most Precious Resource, Kaufmann presents fire as a force of regeneration rather than apocalypse. He considers the long history of ecological burns, the varied ways fire behaves across the state, and the lessons we can learn from California's largest fires of recent decades. Packed with Kaufmann's signature watercolor maps and paintings, The State of Fire confronts one of California most pressing social and ecological challenges. From this maelstrom Kaufmann emerges to share a deepened love for the natural world—and a refreshingly hopeful vision of California’s future.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published September 17, 2024
24 people are currently reading
2882 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
October 8, 2024
Beautiful book!! The graphics are amazing. Species of animals and plants are shown in graphics and pictures. We have a deep dive into the reasons behind the fires in California.
This would be an interesting read for children, adolescents, and adults, and all kinds of naturalists!!
Amazing work, love it!!
This would be an interesting read for children, adolescents, and adults, and all kinds of naturalists!!
Amazing work, love it!!
October 18, 2024
This book addresses a question that many ask themselves. Why does California burn? The author traces back to the beginning of time to explain the answer. The illustrations are gorgeous: full of color and substance! This would be an excellent resource for high school or college students!
January 12, 2025
By now, attentive individuals have likely experienced intrusive thoughts about a hotter future on Earth. Of all the looming threats and unfolding dynamics associated with climate change, catastrophic wildfire seems to stoke climate anxiety most of all, and few places experience this more acutely than California. Within this reality, The State of Fire arrives immediately as a critically influential work. This, Kaufmann’s latest book, joins an emergent genre that is both somber and sober in its deconstruction of long-lived myths about wilderness and fire in the North American West.
The California landscape was managed, substantially with fire, before first contact between indigenous people and European migrants, and it is managed, albeit poorly, and less substantially with fire, today. Kaufmann frames this succession within long-time, citing Stephen Pyne’s three epochs of fire: First fire, the original fire, stems only from lightning and volcanoes. Second fire, by the hand of indigenous people. Third fire, by the burning of hydrocarbons, marking the epoch of the Pyrocene. The book considers deeply this third epoch (alternatively known as the Anthropocene or the Petrocene) and its effect on California, revealing a history and pattern that is, at turns, hopeful and foreboding. Within the current geological epoch, California has experienced centuries-long drought and the Little Ice Age, and yet, as Kaufmann explains, it has retained its biodiversity throughout.
The material is carefully researched. 39 of the 240 pages are notes and bibliography that support his rigorous and sometimes novel observations. His challenges to the fire management status quo and prescriptions for adaptation to the new reality of fire in California are well supported and deserve wider attention. His intention for the book: “The careful telling of what a relationship to fire means in terms of our societal relationship to one another,” comes through forcefully.
The State of Fire gives the reader plenty to consider in how we relate to fire and nature. “The world is held together by relationships between living beings,” Kaufmann asserts in the Introduction. Then in conclusion asks, “What if society’s relationship with fire could become less antagonistic and California’s pyrogenic history were embraced?” Puzzling on this and questions of accepted methods of conservation are an important theme, worthy of serious debate, and should be factored into decisions about how to treat forests. For instance, proposed forest management projects in California and associated biomass wood pellet processing facilities deserve deeper scrutiny. The State of Fire adds perspective to this kind of analysis and should lead anyone concerned with California’s climate resilience to see the folly of these extractive operations.
Kaufmann provokes us to think deeply about fire, observing that “[fire] keeps pace and matches every advance of humanity with its own.” As with other keen observations in The State of Fire, we move closer to symbiosis with California’s landscape by internalizing this wisdom.
The California landscape was managed, substantially with fire, before first contact between indigenous people and European migrants, and it is managed, albeit poorly, and less substantially with fire, today. Kaufmann frames this succession within long-time, citing Stephen Pyne’s three epochs of fire: First fire, the original fire, stems only from lightning and volcanoes. Second fire, by the hand of indigenous people. Third fire, by the burning of hydrocarbons, marking the epoch of the Pyrocene. The book considers deeply this third epoch (alternatively known as the Anthropocene or the Petrocene) and its effect on California, revealing a history and pattern that is, at turns, hopeful and foreboding. Within the current geological epoch, California has experienced centuries-long drought and the Little Ice Age, and yet, as Kaufmann explains, it has retained its biodiversity throughout.
The material is carefully researched. 39 of the 240 pages are notes and bibliography that support his rigorous and sometimes novel observations. His challenges to the fire management status quo and prescriptions for adaptation to the new reality of fire in California are well supported and deserve wider attention. His intention for the book: “The careful telling of what a relationship to fire means in terms of our societal relationship to one another,” comes through forcefully.
The State of Fire gives the reader plenty to consider in how we relate to fire and nature. “The world is held together by relationships between living beings,” Kaufmann asserts in the Introduction. Then in conclusion asks, “What if society’s relationship with fire could become less antagonistic and California’s pyrogenic history were embraced?” Puzzling on this and questions of accepted methods of conservation are an important theme, worthy of serious debate, and should be factored into decisions about how to treat forests. For instance, proposed forest management projects in California and associated biomass wood pellet processing facilities deserve deeper scrutiny. The State of Fire adds perspective to this kind of analysis and should lead anyone concerned with California’s climate resilience to see the folly of these extractive operations.
Kaufmann provokes us to think deeply about fire, observing that “[fire] keeps pace and matches every advance of humanity with its own.” As with other keen observations in The State of Fire, we move closer to symbiosis with California’s landscape by internalizing this wisdom.
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March 9, 2025"California-- by way of its positioning on the globe (the west coast of a major land continent, north of the tropics, and subject to the California Current), its philosophy (sequestered from the rest of the North America botanical provinces by the wall that is the Sierra Nevada), and its climate (one of six Mediterranean climate locales in the world)-- has been sculpted by fire in unique ways for the last several million years." p. 28
"California is home to almost sixty-three hundred plant species and subspecies. That number is about one-quarter of the total number of plant taxa in all of North America, and California comprises only 4 percent of the continent's land mass." p. 35
"Home to over sixteen hundred bee species, California has perhaps more robust bee diversity than anywhere else in the world. But almost half of California's bee populations are in decline. Fire exclusion is part of the problem." p. 121
"With every degree Celsius of global warming, there is at least a 12 percent increase in wildland lightning strikes, meaning that the likelihood of ignition will also increase. In the next century, the annual mean temperature of California will rise between 4.2 degrees F and 14.8 degrees F, and the number of extremely hot days is expected to rise by at least 23 percent." p. 172
"Fire is not biologically alive, but it does possess many qualities that give the impression that it exists as a form of life. This form of life can be described as ecological. If fire is ecologically alive, it makes sense that it would seem to possess many attributes reserved for living beings. Fire dances, it dies, it adapts, it sleeps, it even breathes--fire seems compelled toward the consumption of fuel in a manner reminiscent of how plants consume sunlight. Unlike other abiotic ecological agents, such as soil type or meteorology, fire by combustion is uniquely positioned in its need to consume biological material to exist for a brief while before it dies. Fire possesses a mindless will to exist. Fire will not be denied. Fire will not end. Fire will not stop." p. 177
"Imagining the novel design of residential landscapes in the WUI is an economy-transforming opportunity. The fire threat is so universal that a fundamental reassessment of basic municipal designs is warranted. Town design, defensible space, metal-roofed dwellings partially built underground, fire corridors, and an array of actively maintained border defenses begin to detail the list of design considerations that should be taken into account when building communities in the WUI. The cost of implementing such infrastructural design is high, but following a fire catastrophe, the cost of not having done so is surely higher. This design methodology might represent a three-pronged approach of resistance (denying the hunter its fuel), cocreation (allowing the hunter to find fuel in naturalized regimes), and retreat (realizing that the hunter will claim its territory)." p. 178
"California is home to almost sixty-three hundred plant species and subspecies. That number is about one-quarter of the total number of plant taxa in all of North America, and California comprises only 4 percent of the continent's land mass." p. 35
"Home to over sixteen hundred bee species, California has perhaps more robust bee diversity than anywhere else in the world. But almost half of California's bee populations are in decline. Fire exclusion is part of the problem." p. 121
"With every degree Celsius of global warming, there is at least a 12 percent increase in wildland lightning strikes, meaning that the likelihood of ignition will also increase. In the next century, the annual mean temperature of California will rise between 4.2 degrees F and 14.8 degrees F, and the number of extremely hot days is expected to rise by at least 23 percent." p. 172
"Fire is not biologically alive, but it does possess many qualities that give the impression that it exists as a form of life. This form of life can be described as ecological. If fire is ecologically alive, it makes sense that it would seem to possess many attributes reserved for living beings. Fire dances, it dies, it adapts, it sleeps, it even breathes--fire seems compelled toward the consumption of fuel in a manner reminiscent of how plants consume sunlight. Unlike other abiotic ecological agents, such as soil type or meteorology, fire by combustion is uniquely positioned in its need to consume biological material to exist for a brief while before it dies. Fire possesses a mindless will to exist. Fire will not be denied. Fire will not end. Fire will not stop." p. 177
"Imagining the novel design of residential landscapes in the WUI is an economy-transforming opportunity. The fire threat is so universal that a fundamental reassessment of basic municipal designs is warranted. Town design, defensible space, metal-roofed dwellings partially built underground, fire corridors, and an array of actively maintained border defenses begin to detail the list of design considerations that should be taken into account when building communities in the WUI. The cost of implementing such infrastructural design is high, but following a fire catastrophe, the cost of not having done so is surely higher. This design methodology might represent a three-pronged approach of resistance (denying the hunter its fuel), cocreation (allowing the hunter to find fuel in naturalized regimes), and retreat (realizing that the hunter will claim its territory)." p. 178
November 15, 2024
“The story of fire has been at the heart of Californians' relationship to the land, long before the word California was uttered by any human mouth. The future story of fire in California has the potential to positively impact the lives of all Californians as much as any other opportunity ever could. As California moves from an age of progress into an age of resiliency, what fire cooperation by design may mean comes more and more into focus. Aspects of this brave new paradigm have the capacity to permeate all aspects of society and spur bold industries and sciences yet to be invented. The resurgence of traditional ecological knowledge, coupled with scientific innovation, will yield the strongest combination of tools to productively interact with the landscape that humanity could ask for. A cooperative relationship with fire has the potential to reform the California economy and to fuel a hundred new forms of industry that will all revolve around a centralized land ethic of reciprocation and intentionality. From architecture to health care, from agriculture to information technology, from real estate to outdoor recreation, from artificial intelligence to community gardening, all human relationships with the land in California are intimately connected to the land's relationship with fire” (Obi Kaufmann, State of Fire).
“It is hard for people who have not lived in Los Angeles to realize how radically the Santa Ana figures in the local imagination. The city burning is Los Angeles's deepest image of itself: Nathanael West perceived that, in The Day of the Locust; and at the time of the 1965 Watts riots what struck the imagination most indelibly were the fires. For days one could drive the Harbor Freeway and see the city on fire, just as we had always known it would be in the end. Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse, and, just as the reliably long and bitter winters of New England determine the way life is lived there, so the violence and the unpredictability of the Santa Ana affect the entire quality of life in Los Angeles, accentuate its impermanence, its unreliability. The wind shows us how close to the edge we are” (Joan Didion, “Los Angeles Notebook”).
It ends with us staring into a campfire.
“It is hard for people who have not lived in Los Angeles to realize how radically the Santa Ana figures in the local imagination. The city burning is Los Angeles's deepest image of itself: Nathanael West perceived that, in The Day of the Locust; and at the time of the 1965 Watts riots what struck the imagination most indelibly were the fires. For days one could drive the Harbor Freeway and see the city on fire, just as we had always known it would be in the end. Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse, and, just as the reliably long and bitter winters of New England determine the way life is lived there, so the violence and the unpredictability of the Santa Ana affect the entire quality of life in Los Angeles, accentuate its impermanence, its unreliability. The wind shows us how close to the edge we are” (Joan Didion, “Los Angeles Notebook”).
It ends with us staring into a campfire.
October 18, 2024
This is one book I'll need to check out from the library again to dive further into it. I need to listen to a few of his talks discussing this book as well. I sort of feel like I didn't get everything out of it that I could have. I did have a bit of a hard time with the small print, wish the book was larger overall.
I had a hard time reading some of the authors cursive writing here and there which was distracting.
I also need to admit that he used a few words here and there that I was not familiar with so feel like I was missing something at times. He also tends to write like a professor, at least that is how it comes across at times. I do have a college degree in biology but found I had to reread some sentences and didn't always get the gist of what he was saying. Maybe my aging brain!
I do love all the watercolor paintings throughout and the maps, along with the chronology of fires.
I had a hard time reading some of the authors cursive writing here and there which was distracting.
I also need to admit that he used a few words here and there that I was not familiar with so feel like I was missing something at times. He also tends to write like a professor, at least that is how it comes across at times. I do have a college degree in biology but found I had to reread some sentences and didn't always get the gist of what he was saying. Maybe my aging brain!
I do love all the watercolor paintings throughout and the maps, along with the chronology of fires.
June 1, 2025
We heard the author speak about this book at the Commonwealth Club, and the combination of hearing his thoughts along with reading his words is fantastic.
This is an incredibly interesting book with amazing illustrations. Living in CA, the topic of fire feels so close at hand, so this history was really helpful.
I don't normally quote passages, but 03.02 Fire is the Hunter, resonates.
"Fire is not a thing. Fire is not an object. Fire is not inanimate. Once it ignites, fire exists in scales of time and space through patters of behavior and regime. At is smallest scale, fire exists as flame, and flame is the instantaneous combustion reaction that occurs when its constituent components of oxygen, heat, and fuel are ignited."
"Fire will not be denied. Fire will not end. Fire will not stop."
This is an incredibly interesting book with amazing illustrations. Living in CA, the topic of fire feels so close at hand, so this history was really helpful.
I don't normally quote passages, but 03.02 Fire is the Hunter, resonates.
"Fire is not a thing. Fire is not an object. Fire is not inanimate. Once it ignites, fire exists in scales of time and space through patters of behavior and regime. At is smallest scale, fire exists as flame, and flame is the instantaneous combustion reaction that occurs when its constituent components of oxygen, heat, and fuel are ignited."
"Fire will not be denied. Fire will not end. Fire will not stop."
October 3, 2024
I am a great fan of Obi Kaufmann--a California great! I have all of his books and love his art and words. I never realized he was the son of an astrophysicist and had spent time at Palomar as a kid. I am married to a Caltech astrophysicist, who is also very artistic, and so was happy to learn this about his childhood.
So why the fires?
In a nutshell it driven by "centuries of logging, a lack of controlled burns, and the spread of invasive plant species..." all this fueled by heat and draught. I was very interested in the philosophical musings on the history of words such as wild and virgin contrasted with the historic way the native peoples managed the land.
So why the fires?
In a nutshell it driven by "centuries of logging, a lack of controlled burns, and the spread of invasive plant species..." all this fueled by heat and draught. I was very interested in the philosophical musings on the history of words such as wild and virgin contrasted with the historic way the native peoples managed the land.
December 30, 2024
I was sent this in a giveaway, and was happy to find it a very informative overview of the presence of fire in the California ecosystems. A good jumping off point for readers unfamiliar with the subject area, Kaufmann does a good job of defining terms and providing examples, and creating a picture of the science involved without becoming too densely academic. The book itself has gorgeous artwork and high quality pages. My only issue is with the choice of artistic font on the splash quotes, as even as someone who can read cursive, it was difficult to parse some of the words.
November 29, 2024
I got this book through a giveaway. I found it very interesting, and chock full of information. I loved the water colors that were included. I have a newfound understanding of how wildfires can be both destructive, but also healthy for an environment. The only apart that was a little inconvenient was the cursive, it was a bit hard to decipher at first, but eventually I was able to read it.
February 6, 2025
A beautiful book, as usual from Kaufmann. Introduces some profound disruptive truths, which gives a book 4 stars automatically. Truly earth shattering to consider that human beings have been maintaining and creating and changing this landscape of California for at least 10,000 years. Ice ages, climate shifts, whatever, humankind has been here, watching over the earth with fire
February 24, 2025
We need better land management that integrates joint management with Tribes, proactive prescribed burns and fuel treatment, and infrastructure in the WUI that can withstand fire. I really appreciate Obi's poetic voice that guides the book--especially his description of adaptive landscape philosophy that embraces disturbance and upholds Indigenous sovereignty.
June 16, 2025
Intriguing idea but this book is very technical and evolution bound. The fonts chosen are hard to read at the size they chose, plus a lot of the charts and photos are to small too. Having the same info in a larger book would have been better than trying to cram it all in into this size. Great drawings and info but I wound up skimming most of it.
October 15, 2024
After visiting California (from Arkansas) in 2020, I was heartbroken by the burnt landscape. This book was a great anchor to my curiosity as to why this beautiful state was so wrecked by fire. Graphics are great. The book is written for the average person to understand. Liked it. Four stars.
October 17, 2024
Goodreads giveaway
This book was very informative and well-written. The watercolor maps and illustrations were beautiful! My only complaint is that the handwritten text was difficult for me to read because of the writing style.
This book was very informative and well-written. The watercolor maps and illustrations were beautiful! My only complaint is that the handwritten text was difficult for me to read because of the writing style.
October 21, 2024
Such a beautiful book; every Californian should have a copy! It's aesthetically stunning of course, but the content is also fascinating. I learned a lot, even as I've lived my whole life in the state.
November 30, 2024
I really enjoyed this book. The artwork was really nice to look at. There was so much interesting information. A good science book about fires, but in a way anyone with an interest can understand. Well researched and information made consumable.
February 25, 2025
somewhat a sand county almanac-esque but for fire. i’m torn over my precise thoughts on it but many enjoyable tidbits and an important way to view california ecology however i almost always wanted something more
September 8, 2025
The topic of fire, a tool used by humans for millennia to shape the foodscape, is poorly understood by modern humans, which is why it keeps causing us so much trouble. The author talks about the value of accepting fire as a natural and necessary phenomenon.
October 1, 2024
Short and to-the-point but the images don’t work well as an e-book. I also couldn’t read the slightly u usual cursive.
December 30, 2024
Obi always delivers a rich message with original imagery to make it easier to understand. I absolutely adored this book
January 30, 2025
Interesting book but the calligraphy handwriting was difficult to read.
January 31, 2025
This book had beautiful pictures, but had such small font it was very hard to read. The information was interesting.
July 6, 2025
An important and poetic look at the ecology, biology, history, and geology regarding wildfires in California. I will probably refer to this often in my environmental articles.
August 8, 2025
i couldnt read the author’s cursive too well tbh but 100% informative
September 27, 2025
my only gripe is that the handwriting font is sometimes very difficult to read
October 16, 2025
Very nice writing and of course immaculate illustrations, basic introduction of fire regime, history, and ecology in California
But bro does this dude really think anyone can read his handwriting 😭
But bro does this dude really think anyone can read his handwriting 😭
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews