In “Fire Weather,” the journalist John Vaillant makes the case that the catastrophic — and inevitable — 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire was a sign of things to come.
Unpredictable winds, fire clouds that spawn lightning, and flames that leap over firebreaks are confounding efforts to fight the blaze, which is sweeping through southern Oregon.
Starting with the Big Blowup of 1910, the U.S. Forest Service’s strategy mostly has been to put out fires as fast as possible. With climate change and shifting populations, we’re losing that war.
