Wildland firefighting is increasingly facing an intractable reality: We’re stuck in a vicious cycle. A doom loop.

The problem with putting out all fires, said Dallas, is the same one that troubled him on that drive to California. You’re leaving fuel there that could stoke the next megafire you can’t manage, or even stop. “We keep going back to the same places, and it’s more often that the fires are more severe,” Dallas said.