BY RICHARD GRAEBER
Every year we watch in awe as hundreds and thousands of acres of the Intermountain West and the West Coast; timbered hillsides; brush-covered slopes; and, unfortunately, home after home are gobbled up by flamefronts of fire pushed by strong easterly winds. These fires dominate local and national news for days on end; hundreds of engines and aircraft and thousands of personnel are assigned to battle these fires. At some point, we win, Mother Nature relents, or a combination of both occurs and the inferno goes out.
What about the events we don't hear about that happen around the country throughout the year that involve those small fires, an acre—maybe 10 acres—in size, that consume a home or two or burn a few thousand acres of agricultural land and bump into small-town USA with limited fire forces?
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