In Washington, fighting fire with fire prevention

The wildfire that menaced the city of Wenatchee in central Washington three years ago delivered its destruction in less than a day. The Sleepy Hollow fire burned 3,000 acres and gutted more than 30 houses and businesses, forcing hundreds of residents to flee the town that bears the moniker “Apple Capital of the World.”

Later that summer, some 40 miles north near the resort town of Chelan, three fires merged into one and wrought devastation over a six-week period. The Chelan Complex fire scorched 90,000 acres and 85 homes, causing more than 1,600 people to evacuate an area best known for boasting the state’s largest natural lake.

In the aftermath, as both communities realized that only fate and firefighters averted a wider cataclysm, a new approach to land use planning sprouted from