But a happy accident of geography and history conspired to do just that in America. For a few decades a relatively vacant landscape existed in the West. The land was emptied of its indigenes and had not yet filled with colonists. The federal government reserved vast patches of that scene for settlement. By ordaining a permanent public domain, Americans created new habitats for fire, a new human role as fire-tender, and a novel literature.
Most fire regimes are a negotiation between cultural and natural forces.
Most cultures begin their inquiry into fire with the tamed flame. All other expressions are in some way a derivation and, most often, a declination. The American story shifts instead to wildlands and to whatever fires they spark. In particular, the seasonal firefight has become one of the great set-pieces of the American landscape. One would think that out of the tens of thousands of firefighters, a robust literature would have bubbled up, if not boiled over.