http://www.pushback.com/Wattenburg/articles/NowTheyHaveBurnedLosAlamos.html
For me this is the definitive writing on managing forest fires. Dr. Wattenberg had let night radio show from the bay area. He worked at Lawrence Livermore Lans and was called the smartest man you can talk to for free (on the radio).
The state of Cal ignored him on gasoline additives and clearing underbrush from forests, He died 3 months ago, but his work is on the internet.
Any thinking person can easily understand and respect the vast difference between the “natural fires” of a hundred years ago and the all-consuming forest fires of today. When our forests were in fire equilibrium, frequent forest-cleansing ground fires (usually caused by lightening) reduced the combustible fuel load on the forest floor. Native Americans often torched brushy areas that Nature did not clean up in time. These natural fires periodically burned the brush, debris, and excessive numbers of small trees. This was mother nature’s way of cleaning house—without burning down the house. Anyone who walks through an old-growth forest can see the burn marks on the lower trunks of many big trees as evidence that the natural fires of long ago seldom reached the lower limbs of big trees which would cause them to ignite and in turn create a fire storm that incinerates everything else in the forest. Unfortunately, a fire storm is what usually happens today in forest fires during summertime.