From the text ... 'That's a relief. Mr. [John] Goldammer, 49 years old, is at the heart of a global movement to combat the surge in uncontrolled fires on the planet during the past decade. These fires -- from recent blazes in Siberia and Brazil to last year;s horrific fires in Borneo and Florida to the Oakland, Calif., fire in 1991, which took 23 lives -- have turned the once sleepy field of fire ecology into a hot one.Mr. Goldammer, though, doesn't advocate extinguishing every blaze. 'It would be so easy just to say fire is always bad,' he says. 'Then you don't allow any fires. But this isn't the case. Fire is part of our ecological heritage. Many systems are more productive because of fire.'A professor of fire ecology at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mr. Goldammer looms large in his field. He studies fire from all angles: the ill it does to the landscape; the ecological benefits of proper burning; and the effect of fire on the atmosphere. He is editor of the International Forest Fire News, a leading journal, and a member of practically every fire-advisory group in the world.' © Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 9, 1999.