Bob didn't mention that the Peshtigo fire was started by logging operations and burned hot and heavy, like Oregon's great Tillamook fire, through thousands of cutover acres filled with logging slash. I've viewed dozens of wildfire burns and seen lots of clearcuts filled with slash, brush, and densely planted reprod that burned faster and hotter than adjacent unlogged forests . The problem is that clearcuts don't stay bare soil very long! 

When I first went to work in the forests, old timers I worked around had a saying: "If you want to put a fire out, run it up into the woods" My cabin in Southern Oregon resisted the huge Biscuit blaze because I maintained a bare soil perimeter and kept the interior acres brush and sapling free, shaded by big overhead trees that nearly all survived.

In North California, shaded and maintained fuel breaks along logging roads and highways have often been successful except in fire storms. When forest fires become fire storms, all organics are consumed!