it sure sucks when a big fire does all that damage<br> <br> But at the same time, a fire does a LOT of good<br> personally I recall as a younger person fires being a regular deal ALL late spring and summer long<br> small sections of forest would go up in smoke(many times by folks lighting deliberately from feuding neighbors to dis liked folks, to just?? ) <br> but forest fires were super common deals<br> couldn't even guess how many times I would go help put forest fires out as a kid and later on as a young adult<br><br> I personally think all them smaller fires were a part of nature keeping forest healthy<br>had NO shortage of blue berries, and other mast crops back then\\ all them fires kept fresh plants growing and added a lot of nutrients to the soils, wildlife was abundant due to it all!<br><br> these days, SO few forest fires, , so when we do get one now there HUGE and get out of control often<br>as without all them smaller often fires,<br> the amount of dead matter on the ground(fuel) will make fires anymore get crazy fast<br><br> for decades many states did controlled burns to keep fire damages in check and to again make forest healthier and keep wildlife striving<br><br> NOW< legal issue's and liability, have scared almost ALL states from ever doing a controlled burn, due to fear of it getting out of hand and being sued<br> seems , law suits are more scary, to many, than having homes destroyed in out of control fires due to excessive amounts of fuel on the ground from LACK of more often smaller fires!<br><br> funny how that works<br><br>decades ago we had WAY less equipment to fight fires, yet managed to do so , now we such huge and modern equipment and we cannot control them or seem to put them out!!<br><br>