Many areas of the United States, especially the West, are in the cross hairs of devastating wildfires again this year. Amid a summer of searing temperatures and dry winds, firefighters have for weeks tried to contain one escalating fire after another. Other times, these containment lines are 10- to 12-foot-wide trenches that crews have dug along the fire’s edge — sometimes with bulldozers — to stop the fire from spreading. When officials say a fire is 100 percent contained, that does not mean it has been extinguished. It means only that firefighters have it fully surrounded by a perimeter; it could still burn for weeks or months.

Source: New York Times August 17, 2021 21:20 UTC