Anyone catch the 60 Minutes piece on wildfires, which aired just days (hours?) before this California disaster started? They predicted things will get worse, with fires getting as big as half a million acres. Anyone who has studied the history of Northwest railroads has probably come across the story of the big fire of 1910, which burned some THREE MILLION ACRES along the Idaho/Montana border. In just two days! It all but leveled entire towns like Wallace, and killed 78 firefighters plus dozens of civilians. Many escaped the flames by heading for the tunnels of Milwaukee Road's St. Paul Pass, reaching those tunnels either on foot or by train. One poor guy jumped to his death when he saw that the train he was riding was approaching a trestle which appeared to be engulfed in flames. (It wasn't.) We could debate the similarities and differences between the 1910 fire and the current California fires, but what's important is the series of events the 1910 fire set into motion. A lot of political, social, and ecological policy was formed around the 1910 fire. A professor at Arizona State University who is considered an expert on the subject of wildfires said, "August of 1910 was the single-most important moment in American fire history." For much more detail, read the excellent multi-part series which a Missoula newspaper did back in 2000, when they were dealing with major fires in the Bitteroot Valley and reliving the events (and rethinking the results) from 1910. Go to missoulian.com/specials/1910.