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The fires sweeping the West are the result of many factors, not the least of which is the fact that fire is an ancient natural component of Western ecosystems. The conception that fire is a foreign and evil force in nature is not a correct one, except in a certain number of ecosystesm scattered here and there- and even those will suffer a large fire at one time or another in the course of the centuries. Western forests are very fire-attuned: but man has tended to deny the fact, and rather flaunted himself before it. Environmentalists choose sometimes to do nothing, not recognizing man's role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem. "Regular people" (for lack of a better word!) oft times have ignored fire and chosen to believe it can not impact them- or it can be forever stopped. Both sides have contributed, as they have both failed to adequately understand and grapple the problem, and have rather usually merely accerlated and agravated the problem beyond its natural bounds.