Wildfires explained: 10 questions answered

Sometimes fires fit a beneficial land management goal, like when they burn in a wilderness area or national park.

Fires are part of the natural forest cycle, and "at times that's the right approach," said Lane, who is in his 35th season as a firefighter, much of that spent in western Oregon. He joined Washington's natural resources agency in 2019.

Planes or helicopters are used if a wildfire is burning too intensely to send in ground forces, or if aircraft are the best way to deliver water or retardant, Lane said.

"You want to hit a fire quick so it stays small," Lane said.

When it comes to early detection, one innovation is replacing fire lookout towers staffed by humans with cameras in remote areas, many of them in high-definition and armed with artificial intelligence to discern a smoke plume from morning fog. There are 800 such cameras scattered across California, Nevada and Oregon.

Fire managers also routinely summon military drones to fly over fires at night, using heat imaging to map their boundaries and hot spots. They can use satellite imagery to plot the course of smoke and ash.

Generally the heat of a summer day is not the best time to fight wildfires.

"We are pretty successful in the morning, late evening or overnight," Lane said.

Lane said the building material used on a house, and the nearby vegetation, are big factors in determining if a house can be saved when fire approaches.

Usually a fire is named by the first unit of firefighters on the scene. Most of the time the name reflects a nearby geographic feature, such as a creek or valley.

California's massive Dixie Fire, for instance, was named after the road where it started on July 14.

"Every fire has to have a dirt trail around it," Lane said. "That's to separate the fuel from the fire."

Firefighters also get help when the flames burn toward a river, a rocky area or a road. "Separating fuel from fire is what stops them," he said.

Wildfires get one of five ratings, with Type 5 the least dangerous and Type 1 the most dangerous. More than 95% of all fires are smaller Type 4 or 5 wildfires and are quickly put out by local firefighters.

Larger fires, like the ones the Washington state Department of Natural Resources responds to, are assigned an incident commander, said Janet Pearce, agency spokeswoman.