A few years back I spent some time touring the sites in the western national parks. Yellowstone was not that many years past that huge fire which destroyed half the trees in the forest. Our guide, however, put a more positive spin on that event: half the trees were spared and were still thriving.
What we learned was that fire is actually a friend of the earth. Fire eliminates choking scrub growth, removes old, dead, or diseased trees, and creates needed pasture land, expanding the habitat of the forest animals and allowing fresh new growth.
Another value of forest fires was obvious as you looked off in the distance to the heavily wooden mountains: half of the trees were brown not green. The pine bark beetles are destroying our forests. Ironically, it is the occasional forest fire that normally keeps the pine bark beetles in check.
Consider the proposition that Smokey the Bear is not a friend of the earth.
A Celebration of Reading 