Dennis Nord

Santa Barbara Fire Song: Three stories of wild fire.

In Santa Barbara as across the west, people live with more and more wildfire. These three stories provide perspective for young people caught up in wildfire. They build from the fairy tale “Black Belly Frog and the Fire” with an assault of the sudden discovery of rushing fire and the loss of home and threat to life. In “Gel’s Ants” a budding entomologist makes discoveries far beyond the harvester ants she is investigating that provides new leads on who started a terrible community-fire. “Canyon Fire” comes back to the moment of escaping the fast moving wildfire and the awful guilt of the accidental arsonist. Each story is a window into the experience for different aged young people who have been near wildfires and had their worlds shaken in the process.