I spent 34 seasons on the fire line, 27 as a smoke jumper, dropped in by parachute to take on fires.
But I knew once it stole onto the internet that I was stamping on fires, and that I was never going to have enough feet and hands to get them all".
PAGE A18 RUMORS ON FIRES' ORIGINS There is speculation that illegal immigrants started one of the nation's largest wildfires, which has burned up more than 70,000 acres of national forest along Arizona's border with Mexico since it began almost four weeks ago.
In addition to higher daytime temperatures, one leading university professor researching the effect of climate change on fires explains that the increased nighttime activity of wildfires are caused by lower humidity and higher nighttime temperatures and climate change is partly to blame.
That is because global climate models largely agree that areas near the Equator will see more precipitation with climate change, according to Max Moritz, one of the Ecosphere study's researchers, who heads a laboratory focused on fires at the University of California, Berkeley.
Morning tea was brewed on fires lit by rubbing two sticks together.
"That wet period helped keep a lid on fires," Dr. Allen said.
The rush is often critical: Firefighters converge on fires, douse the flames and save lives.
More than 400 people come for eight days' camping in circles, cooking collectively on fires.
There is virtually no research on fires in an outbreak this large.
"And he told me: 'I go out on fires for this newspaper.
