Jack Hattendorf steers his road grader back and forth across a dirt path cutting through blackened earth.
With each pass, he smooths and tamps down the soil to remake a dirt road that fire crews tore apart days earlier to stop flames that would become part of the largest wildfire on record in California. Even as flames chew through forestland nearby, Hattendorf and others are working to repair the damage caused not by flames but by firefighters trying to stop them. They seek to restore private lands, protect the environment and water supply, and prevent erosion that can lead to mudslides like the one that tour though a community outside Santa Barbara in January, killing nearly two dozen people.