Today, wildland fire is everybody's business, from the White House to the fireground. Wildfires have grown bigger, more intense, more destructive--and more expensive. Federal taxpayers, for example, footed most of the $16 million bill for fighting the 2006 Esperanza Fire in Southern California, which marked the first time that an entire five-man engine crew was killed by fire, as well as the first time that an arsonist was successfully prosecuted for murder for setting a wildland fire.--From publisher description.