At first glance, a lawsuit to force the U.S. Forest Service to stop routinely fighting wildfires seems a little crazy.

At second glance n certainly for hundreds of Helena-area residents n it seems downright scary.

That's not to say the lawsuit filed by Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics doesn't raise some valid concerns. By seeking a court order forcing the Forest Service to prepare an environmental impact statement on forest firefighting, the group wants the agency to examine the toll firefighting takes in terms of firefighters' lives and the environmental impact of dropping retardant on wildfires. More generally, the lawsuit questions the Forest Service's longstanding "put 'em out" mentality that has increased fuels and worsened fires.

But drive around the outlying areas of most cities in the West n Helena most definitely included n and you'll find a major flaw in the argument that most fires should be ignored. The urban-wildland interface isn't a line. It's a deep web of woodsy residential development stretching for miles into the forest in all directions.

In Helena, check out Grizzly and Orofino gulches. Travel Priest Pass, or look at all the homes tucked up against forest in the Birdseye area. Houses abound in forested areas, from York and the Spokane Bench to the huge subdivisions along the winding roads in the Montana City and Clancy bedroom communities.

It's far too late to let a wildfire run unchecked, even miles from the nearest residence. The model here is not so much last summer's fires, or even the blazes of 2000. It is the fires of 1988.

That year, best known for the burning in Yellowstone National Park, fires in the Helena area were huge. The most unforgettable, because of its proximity to town, occurred in the Elkhorns, where giant columns of smoke sent burning twigs as far as Canyon Ferry Lake and flames could have devastated much of northern Jefferson County. Helenans cracked morbid jokes about stopping a South Hills fire at Broadway.

It really wasn't a laughing matter. Under the right conditions, any fire can explode, roaring for miles, unstoppable.

Let forest officials go ahead and take yet another look at fire management practices. But, just as occurred last July and August, also let fire crews be on hand to stamp out every fire anywhere near Helena, long before those spot blazes turn into something terrible.