The way L.A. thinks about fires is all wrong, two experts say. They explain how to do better.

Frustrated by the continual ineffectiveness of firefighting efforts over the decades, both advocate for a more sophisticated understanding of fire and the ecosystems that foster urban and wildland blazes. Fire is so often viewed as a crisis and emergency that it is divorced from many factors that contribute to its destructive nature — factors that, if addressed, could mitigate the destruction.