Decades of snuffing out fires at the first sign of smoke combined with climate change have laid the groundwork for a massive wildfire in northern California and scores of smaller ones across the western U.S. and Canada, experts say. These fires are moving faster and are harder to fight than those in the past. The only way to stop future wildfires from becoming so ferocious is to use smaller controlled fires, as indigenous people did for centuries, experts say. …Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said, the fires that are burning today are sometimes so severe and hot that they transform forests into a different type of ecosystem. Part of the issue is that climate change means that there are hotter conditions as plant life returns. …But he said there is no option to address the wildfire risk that doesn’t involve fire.