Dr. Browne is just emerging from operating at the center of the worst wildfire in New Mexico's history and an unprecedented two-week shutdown of the laboratory.

It was the worst wildfire in local history.

This was the worst and most destructive wildfire in Texas history destroying 1,691 homes, killing two people, and causing $325 million of insured property damage.

State and federal officials were still surveying the damage from California's worst wildfires, which killed 20 people, leveled 3,500 homes and blackened 743,621 acres, nearly the size of Rhode Island.

The worst wildfires of the year in the West raged through 300,000 acres in four states, and another 2 million acres in Alaska's brush and spruce country.

The damage the fire caused is estimated at more than $9 million, and was the worst wildfire since 1994.

The purpose is to respond to the criticism, and to distinguish 'bad' intentional or accidental wildfires from the needs of sustainable forests via natural 'good' fire ecology.

We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence.

Yet those counties in Colorado and New Mexico afflicted in recent years by the worst wildfires are also among those with the greatest influx of new residents.

The state suffered its worst wildfire season, with more than 4 million acres burned.