The flames licked sideways and leapt above the treetops. It was January 2020, and Greg Slade raced through smoke and past downed eucalyptus trees along a burning road on Australia’s Kangaroo Island.

Already, Slade, the acting manager of a wilderness retreat, had evacuated 18 staff and dozens of guests. He hung back to protect the hotel, but with 50-knot winds and scorching heat the retreat would not survive the worst fire season in the nation’s history. It, like thousands of homes and business, soon would be reduced to smoking rubble.

It took Slade 12 hours to get to safety that day. He spent the next 10 months traveling and, this October, landed a job at another retreat, on Australia’s 700-square-mile Fraser