VIDEO: It may seem counterproductive, setting fire when flames are already tearing through acres of land.
It's actually a tactic known as back burning, and it's used to fight wildland fires.
"It's a lot less dangerous for firefighters, and there are no resources lost," Chad Graeve, Pottawattamie County natural resource specialist, said. "It was real advantageous."
Fires like the one on April 11 that sparked just north of Council Bluffs along I-80.
"The fire was spotting so far ahead of itself," Graeve said. You had the main fire and a new hot spot, sometimes 150 feet ahead of it. We didn't have time to work off of something and backfire. So we had to go way ahead, find a better spot to backfire off of so that it wouldn't jump that and really create a lot of black."