Increasing fire frequency and severity now poses a threat to most of the world's wildlands and forested ecosystems and their benefits. The HMV (Heat–Moisture–Vapor) model is a tool to manage fuels to help mitigate the consequences of fire and promote soil and vegetation recovery after fire. The model's performance is surprisingly good, but it also provides insights into the existence of previously unobserved feedbacks and other physical processes that occur during fire.