Wildfires cause huge destruction every year and working out exactly how they burn and predicting where they will go is no easy task.
At the University of California a team of researchers have been recreating these fires indoors, in an attempt to better understand them.
This involves various experiments such as working out in what conditions a surface ignition will spread and trying to identify what the important variables are.
They hope the research will help firefighters out in the field tackle real real fires more effectively.