http://gallery.pictopia.com/providerasset/1/pictopia_logo.pnghttp://gallery.pictopia.com/providerasset/1/pictopia_logo.pnghttp://gallery.pictopia.com/natgeo/gallery/46674/2010-12-29T16:39:42Z2010-12-29T16:39:42ZMark Thiessen/National Geographic Image Collectionhttp://gallery.pictopia.com/natgeo/gallery/46674/photo/4779590/

Building, camper, truck: All were reduced to incandescent skeletons by flames that savaged Running Springs, California, last fall.

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Obliterating houses and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee, 18 large wildfires ripped across southern California's parched, crowded hills in three weeks last year.

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In a last-ditch effort, firefighters covered the Scott Mountain lookout in heat-reflecting wrap to protect it from fire churning through Boise National Forest. It survived.

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In August 2007 photographer Mark Thiessen drove through the Jocko Lake fire in Montana.

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Forest fire caused by lightning in the Custer State Park in South Dakota. Shows examples of a healthy ground fire that clears out the underbrush and small trees..

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With a deafening crescendo, flames hurtle through a thick stand of firs. Nearly a century of aggressive fire suppression has left many western forests overgrown and extremely vulnerable to wildfire.

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Firefighter Justin Bone calls in a water drop to check the Lucky fire in Idaho's Boise National Forest. Heavy helicopters like this twin-rotor Chinook can haul more than 2,500 gallons of water.

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Blasting water into a hollow tree, a firefighter attempts to drown stubborn flames near Happy Camp, California.

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Before: Just one ember, landing in dry pine needles heaped at the foot of a staircase, was all it took to incinerate this house during an October 2007 fire in Running Springs, California.

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Embers filled the sky in Santa Clarita, California, during the Buckwheat fire.

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Flames surge up a hillside near the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California.

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After: Beyond the debris of the house in Running Springs, California (previous image), living trees reveal that fires often jump from house to house, sparing vegetation.

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Trying to break the fuel chain, firefighters spray down a burning house in Running Springs, California, to keep embers and flames from starting fresh fires elsewhere.

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A maelstrom of embers whips across a field near Santa Clarita, California.

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Melted by a passing wildfire, a child's toy could still be useful—to fire investigators

//pictopia.com/perl/get_image?provider_id=318&ptp_photo_id=natgeo:4779576&size=128&m=1213220537.0//pictopia.com/perl/get_image?provider_id=318&ptp_photo_id=natgeo:4779576&size=128&m=1213220537.01166375http://gallery.pictopia.com/natgeo/gallery/46674/photo/4779576/In the Magazine/Past Issues/July 2008/Fire Season2008-06-11T14:41:42ZMark Thiessen/National Geographic Image Collectionhttp://gallery.pictopia.com/natgeo/gallery/46674/photo/4779557/

Using terrain as a tool, a firefighter shoots flares onto a hillside, hoping to create a chimneylike effect: As heat from this fire rises, it should draw flames upslope, away from unburned forest below. But fire doesn’t always cooperate.

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San Bernadino County firefighters (Capt. Millerick) move Mercedes and boat from a house in the Grass Valley fire (http://inciweb.org/incident/1003/) near Lake Arrowhead.

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