EXPLAINER: What are some key decisions in fighting fires?

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Thousands of wildfires ignite in the U.S. each year, and each one requires firefighters to make quick decisions, often in difficult conditions like high winds and lightning.

Crews and managers must determine when to bring in aircraft, what time of day is best to battle flames, whether to evacuate residents and even if certain fires should be extinguished at all.

In the West, which sees many of the country's largest fires, they do all this amid the backdrop of prolonged drought and other climate change-induced conditions that have made wildfires more destructive. Other challenges include a century of reflexive wildfire suppression and overgrown forests, experts say, and communities that have crept into fire-prone areas.

Russ Lane, fire operations chief for the Washington state Department of Natural Resources, explains how some key firefighting decisions are made:

WHY DO FIRE MANAGERS LET SOME WILDFIRES BURN?

Sometimes fires fit a beneficial land management goal, like when they burn in a wilderness area or national park.

Fires are part of the natural forest cycle, and "at times that’s the right approach,” said Lane, who is in his 35th season as a firefighter, much of that spent in western Oregon. He joined Washington's natural resources agency in 2019.

Also, wildfires sometimes burn in areas where it is unsafe to put firefighters.

WHEN DO FIRE MANAGERS DEPLOY AIRCRAFT?

Planes or helicopters are used if a wildfire is burning too intensely to send in ground forces, or if aircraft are the best way to deliver water or retardant, Lane said.

“You want to hit a fire quick so it stays small,” Lane said.

The goal is to keep them from erupting into megafires. Cal Fire, California’s firefighting agency, keeps an average of 95% of blazes to 10 acres (4...