Most people will never come face-to-face with a wildfire the size of the ones ripping through California.

Driven by winds with gusts of up to 70 miles per hour, they're explosive, fast, and often unpredictable. It moves less akin to a tsunami-like wall of fire and more like a kid playing hopscotch, with wind pushing embers out ahead of the fire, helping it grow and spread.

It's these same winds that make fighting fires so difficult. Heat and smoke can become unbearable before firefighters are able to make contact with the flames. And since many fires spring to life in wooded areas, the terrain can be difficult for trucks to access.

The Camp Fire currently burning in Northern California is the deadliest