If you get wind, it's hard to save any of them. What happens after a blowup depends on the landscape and the weather. Twelve summers after the Yellowstone blaze, surveys suggest plant diversity in the burned areas might be 10 times higher than pre-fire estimates. But in other locations, the heat from large wildfires has penetrated nearly a foot into the soil, roasting roots and seeds. The heat also caramelizes sap and resins into a waxy layer known as hydrophobic soil.
Rain beads up and rolls off the blackened surface.
Plants cannot sprout, and a single thunderstorm can flush away topsoil that took 2,000 years to accumulate. The sediment, in turn, clogs streams. Stop cattle grazing. Tighten zoning and building codes. Combine fire suppression and prescribed burning in a single program.