1995 | Mount Vision, Marin County
These trees were scorched and flattened by the roaring winds generated by the Vision Fire, which at its peak, burned an acre each second in West Marin. With the prevailing wind and the fire’s own incendiary turbocharging, it would likely have burned all the way to Mill Valley and the shore of San Francisco Bay, except for a crucial decision. The local strategic commander called the superintendent of the National Seashore, asking permission to take bulldozers into the parkland to cut a firebreak. The superintendent looked out his window, jettisoned the protocol of a call to Washington DC, and said, “Go!”