Best views, weather, etc. How to test them 👓 SC, Ala. sites look back Betty Ford honored
NEWS
Climate Change

Fighting fire with fire: Controlled burns remain essential as US wildfires intensify

Even as the Forest Service halts controlled burns for 90 days after a rare escape in New Mexico, experts say the practice needs to expand.

SAN BERNARDINO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. – In 2015, the Lake Fire burned 31,000 acres in this popular hiking forest northeast of Los Angeles. It destroyed four buildings, came perilously close to the resort town of Big Bear Lake and took more than 1,900 firefighters five days to contain at a cost of almost $40 million. 

Which is why it seemed counterintuitive to see some of those same firefighters walking along the forest floor in April with red drip torches deliberately sparking a blaze. 

But the aim of the men and women of the U.S. Forest Service on this day was to prevent a repeat of the 2015 conflagration by reintroducing a natural process stamped out by humans.