I lived in one of those California firetrap homes and after six years of nervous summers moved down into town.

Forest maintenance was VERY expensive. I thought living in the woods would make landscaping more optional, but the old rules, even though they were less stringent than the new, still required yearly visits from the tree guys, to clear out brush and get rid of lower branches.

Even the strictest laws will not protect against a raging forest fire. We've all seen how these fires can jump superhighways, which are pretty wide. What most of the laws prevent is a house fire from starting a true forest fire. This protects the forest and the neighbors from a particular home, but won't necessarily to protect the house from the forest. It takes 100 yards or more of clear-cut to protect from a windy forest fire. Also, our neigborhood only had the one road that would be an escape. So after six years, I moved.

During a Santa Ana wind event every home is at risk. I've seen those winds drive fires right through urban neighborhoods well within city limits and far away from any forest. Hot dry wind with a sustained speed in excess of 50 MPH is a calm Santa Ana. They reach hurricane force. I've watched them bend flag poles, drop power lines, and flip semi-tractor trailers like they were toys. Allow that force to drive an out of control wild fire for 7 straight days and anything in front of it is in serious peril. Fire fighters do not even try and extinguish the flames. All they can do is to try and direct the path of the burn, do individual building protection and then get out of the way before they too are consumed. Small fires get huge fast. Until some new form of fire fighting equipment or technique is devised we can expect a repeat every few years of catastrophic fires in So Cal.