Fireline: a six part series about what wildfire means for the West, our planet and our way of life. Coming March 9, 2021.

When Lily Clarke arrived at the August Complex Fire, it was a fire of sensational size. The blaze eventually burned more than 1 million acres, becoming the largest recorded wildfire in California history. Across the country in 2020, flames charred an area size nearly 5 times the size of Yellowstone National Park — the largest swathe of land burned since reliable records began. Wildfires across the country are getting bigger, hotter, and more devastating. But what's all this fire really mean — for the west, for firefighters, and for everyday folks? And what's it really like to fight fire on the ground?

• Lily Clarke fights wildfire for the US Forest Service and received her Master of Science in Systems Ecology from the University of Montana.
• John Maclean is the author of 5 books about wildfire.

In 1910, a wildfire the size of Connecticut engulfed parts of Montana, Idaho and Washington. Ed Pulaski and his crew were among the many people trapped by the enormous blaze. The Big Burn, as it came to be known, helped propel a culture of fire suppression that persists in many forms  to this day. What does that massive fire mean for the way our society deals with the wildfires of today? 

• Jim See is the president of the Pulaski Project in Wallace, Idaho.
• Steve Pyne is a fire historian, and emeritus professor at Arizona State University. 
• Andrew Larson is a forest ecologist, professor at the University of Montana, and director of the Wilderness Institute.