Chris Dunlavy

In 1910, a vast forest fire ravaged three US states, and even blazed its way across the Canadian border.
Eighty-seven people died, several towns were razed to the ground and an estimated billion dollars worth of timber lost.
From that moment on, the newly-formed US Forest Service made the suppression of fire a priority. Watchtowers were constructed. Firefighters were trained to parachute into remote ravines at the first wisp of smoke.
A mascot -Smokey Bear - pointed sternly from posters in every national park, warning the public that carelessness caused fires. And it worked. ...