Fighting fire. . .

Half the state of California is on fire, so I've been thinking a lot about flames.  Half of my family makes their living fighting wildfires, so I've heard quite a few stories about what it takes to put out a fire, or at least contain one.

Its given me a whole new perspective on the metaphorical phrase "fighting fire with fire".  Even a relatively small fire is hard to put out and can do quite a lot of damage if not actively contained.  When you fight fire with fire all you get is bigger, and often faster moving, flames.  Sometimes setting a controlled fire to choke out fuel can help stop a bigger fire when it reaches your territory, of course, but if conditions are dry, that is a risky route to take.  Most of the people I know who fight fire with fire accomplish nothing more than burning down their own house.

Stopping a fire in its tracks is hot, hard, dirty work so I think most people give up after a few weeks or months, convinced its impossible.  But there are only a few ways to put out a fire:  deprive it of oxygen, cut off its fuel, or douse it over and over with water.  Occasionally winds are going to pick up and make things even harder for a while, of course.  More often than we remember or even realize, however, a sudden downpour of rain comes from nowhere to slow things down and help us out.  It is true that much is out of our control, but that is no reason to stop digging line or stop hauling buckets of water--more is in our control than we can see from the ground.  We don't know how much good we can do if we keep working to extinguish the fire.  We do know, however, that we'll have nothing left if we just keep fanning the flames.