"Wildfires need fuel to burn. A key way to get rid of that fuel is to set it ablaze, very carefully."

"It’s a clear, sunny spring morning in Seeley Lake, Mont., and 34 firefighters are gathering on a road east of town, drip torches in hand. They are here to set a fire, not stop one.

One of the primary defenses Western land managers have against large uncontrollable wildfires are small controlled fires like the one firefighters are setting this day, May 17.

The greater northwest Montana region has a long familiarity with wildfire, cultural fire and fire suppression. The landscape is peppered with fire lookouts, some staffed, some used for recreation, and all an evocation of a time before aircraft were widely available to spot new fire starts."

Amanda Monthei, Zoeann Murphy, Lo Bénichou, Shikha Subramaniam, and Dylan Moriarty report for the Washington Post July 29, 2021. [2]