tilla,

You shouldn't confuse opinion with fact. Not everyone who thinks some fires ought to be left to burn is a "Smokey Bear lover". I understand the need to manage forests, but if you think you're going to beat Ma Nature at doing it, you're dreadfully mistaken. Putting fires out consistently leads to an unnatural buildup of fuel, and eventually will result in the kind of fires that ravaged Yellowstone Park. The Yellowstone fires show that allowing fires to burn, after decades of putting them out, can result in fires of magnitudes we had not yet experienced. It looks like we're damned if we do, damned if we don't. Let the fires burn, and they may become too large to contain....put them out and the fuel builds up until any resulting fires become extremely difficult to contain.

That being said, I'm extremel;y saddened by this news. I'm not sure if I believe their job is so important as to outweigh their deaths. I suppose it is, and if MY house were threatened by a fire, wildfire or otherwise, I'd sure as hell want the fire put out. Still, there are children without parents, and parents without children because of this Possessions can be replaced, people can't.