Hector Delgado

Wildfire scientist and former hotshot firefighter who spent 8 seasons on the line before getting his PhD in fire ecology from UC Davis. Grew up in a fire-prone community outside Santa Barbara and was evacuated three times before age 18. Now runs a fire behavior modeling lab and consults for CAL FIRE and the US Forest Service. Has mapped fire risk for 2 million acres and his predictive models have been used in 40+ evacuation decisions. Writes about wildfire science, prescribed burning, the wildland-urban interface problem, and why fighting every fire made everything worse. Known for explaining ember transport physics using basketball analogies and for a viral thread about the Paradise fire that made grown firefighters cry. Thinks the phrase 'wildfire season' is obsolete because it's now year-round. Smokes his own beef jerky and considers it a fire science experiment.