Needles Fire burns more than 200 acres on California-Arizona border, all evacuation orders lifted

Why does Fire get HOT? Fire starts when fuel molecules, like wood or gas, react with oxygen in a rapid chemical chain reaction called combustion. At the molecular level, this involves breaking weak bonds between atoms in the fuel and oxygen, which frees up electrons that were shared in those bonds. These electrons then jump to form stronger, more stable bonds in new molecules like carbon dioxide and water, releasing a burst of energy in the process. That energy comes from the electrons settling