ince the 1990s, USDA Forest Service employees and leaders have taken steps to improve the agency's safety record (USDA Forest Service 2018), resulting in a declining number of fatalities since 2010. Yet wildland firefighter entrapments have persisted (NIFC 2018), despite the safety measures, safety training, and personal protective equipment adopted by the wildland fire community. The single greatest common denominator for entrapments is the presence of firefighters on a particular fireground. That raises a policy question: Why and under what circumstances do fire managers try to control wildland fires?