Giant fire set pace for Forest Service

Each year major wildfires in the West are fought like military battles, with firefighters deploying by ground and air, bombers dropping retardant on flames, and incident commanders plotting strategy behind the lines. These often epic campaigns are largely the result of the Great Fire of 1910. The largest in U.S. history, it burned an area the size of Connecticut, wiping out whole towns and killing 86 people in remote areas of Idaho, Washington and Montana. This is the 100th anniversary of the Aug. 20-21 firestorm that ended the era when wildfires were often allowed to burn themselves out. The fire, also known as the Big Burn, spawned a wildfire-industrial complex that employs thousands of people to extinguish forest fires each year, even though many think those efforts will likely result in larger, more destructive fires. "For decades, the Forest Service told a clear and compelling story of firefighting as good versus evil, the moral equivalent of war," Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said in a spring speech in Boise, Idaho, commemorating the Great Fire. Things are different now. Fire is seen as necessary and beneficial, although the decision on when to let it burn and when to put it out continues to spark lots of debate...more