Fire has been part of life on Earth for a very long time. Bits of charcoal and other wildfire debris have been found in 430-million-year-old rocks, suggesting that plants became fuel for fire shortly after they made their way from oceans to land.
Humans have always had to contend with wildfires, starting long before our ancestors figured out how to make a fire themselves or barbecue a mammoth. As human populations grew, so did the flames’ toll. In 1871, the town of Peshtigo, Wis., was leveled by a fast-moving fire that killed about 1,500 people and burned through a swath of forest 15 kilometers wide and 65 kilometers long.
