Associated Press: The fire season has gotten longer throughout the West in the past few years. It used to stretch from May into August or September, starting with blazes flaring up in the Southwest’s arid spring, said Rich Nieto, regional fire operations director for the Southwest Coordination Center. But now, fires touch off in April or earlier, and the season sometimes stretches into October, said Nieto, whose job entails allocating and moving ground-based firefighting …