Cal Fire Battalion Chief Miguel Watson wakes to the wind whipping through the trees. The whole night is ahead of him. He lies there and then, feeling restless, gets up and walks to his pickup truck.

He listens to the radio, and if he finds a fire in a neighboring district in California's Napa Valley, he'll head there. If he can't, he'll stay on the road until his mind settles. That's most nights now in the summer and fall.

Watson counts among the traumatized firefighters battling the last decade's grueling blazes in the American West.