What I don't understand is, with all the technology we have, how do these fires get so big and out of control in the first place?
Terrain. Wind. Fuel. Very low humidity.
A fire can and does blow up rapidly when there's very steep terrain, high winds, dead trees as fuel, and humidity less than 10%. That's some of what happened with the 416 Fire in the Durango area. Technology can assist, but it cannot overcome.
There are times when the firefighters have to pull back or out of an area because it's too dangerous. Fire can move extremely fast with optimum conditions. The "perfect storm" of fires happens more frequently than we might imagine.
