Fire Pt. 1: Fighting Angry Fires

The average area burned by wildfires in the United States annually has nearly tripled since the 1980s. But perhaps more importantly, those fires have gotten hotter, faster spreading, and more dangerous—placing the future of America's forests in jeopardy. In this first installment of our fire series, we look at how and why wildfires have changed so dramatically in recent decades, and we hear from firefighters about what it is like to fight them.