The Denver Post and Boulder Daily Camera cover Megafire and its author

I was thrilled that Charlie Brennan at The Boulder Daily Camera wrote such a compelling piece about me and my book. The story appeared in Daily Camera and The Denver Post Sunday, Aug. 6.

Boulder author warns of more “megafires” on nation’s horizon

CU Boulder’s Michael Kodas argues for better approach in face of threat

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As the seven-year anniversary of the devastating Fourmile Fire approaches, a new book by a Boulder author advances the proposition that so-called “megafires” have become far more common and for several reasons will likely only become more so.

The book is “Megafire,” by Michael Kodas, to be published Aug. 22 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kodas is the deputy director of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado.

The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, defines a “megafire” as a blaze more than 100,000 acres in size, but Kodas doesn’t believe it’s quite that simple. He believes the Fourmile Fire of September 2010, which claimed 169 structures — but burned a far more modest 6,181 acres — qualifies for the label.

“I kind of came to the personal conclusion that there are lots of small fires that behave differently than they have in the past, and consume or destroy a lot of homes or destroy a lot of the infrastructure we depend on, destroy habitat for endangered species, or kill people, or kill firefighters, that are probably more ‘mega’ than a fire that destroys 100,000 acres in a remote wilderness, where fires have burned like that forever,” Kodas said on Thursday.

Read the full story on DailyCamera.com.