MAY 2018 FORBES ASIA | 55
O
ne of the largest ires to burn in California’s
Sier ra Nevada mountain range, the Rim Fire
tore through 257,000 acres on the edge of Yo-
semite National Park in 2013. Not long ater
ireighters doused the lames, a leet of bull-
dozers and trucks arrived, sent by billionaire Archie Aldis
“Red” Emmerson. Workers began ripping up the trees even as
the brush nearby was still smoldering.
“We’ll be in there before the smoke is out,” Emmerson
boasts in a rare, three-hour interview from his Douglas-ir-
paneled boardroom in tiny Anderson, California, which is
wedged between the Shasta-Trinity and Lassen National For-
ests, about two hours north of Sacramento. Emmerson recalls
the Fountain Fire of 1992 in Shasta County, 50 miles north-
east of Anderson, that burned 64,000 acres and 272 homes:
“We had trucks coming down the road that had lames on the
back.” At 89 years of age he walks slowly but has no problem
piloting his silver Dodge pickup truck to work before 8 a.m.,
six days a week. Adds his son Mark, who is CFO, “We get in,
and we are very aggressive ater a ire.”
Nicknamed “Red” as a teen for his hair color, Emmerson is
happy to reminisce about the many ires from which his Sierra
Paciic Industries has proited. Wearing jeans held up by a belt
buckle emblazoned with the insignia he brands on his ranch’s
cattle, the feisty tycoon, who runs the business with his two
sons, George, 61, and Mark, 58, makes more money from log-
ging ater forest ires than any person in America. When the
government sells contracts to cut down trees ater ires in na-
