It’s funny, or maybe sad, but we never had these kind of fire problems. Fires occurred in uninhabited forests, so one argument is that the suburbs grew out to the forests, which is why they now lose so many homes. However, there were dense cities back when I was a kid. None of them ever burned down, not even close. We also had the richest farmland in the world in the Central Valley, which was green even during drought conditions. Now those areas are barren, dusty, non-producing desert. We never had state wide power outages, either. Electric power was as reliable as the sun. Flooding occurred on a small scale, but flood control built over 100 years pretty much worked as it should. I never, EVER heard of a dry fire hydrant, I can guarantee that. The reservoirs which supplied hydrants in every California city, were stocked full even during drought conditions.No sense pointing fingers, though. What’s happened has happened. The “lessons learned” activity can proceed in 10 or 15 years after the home owners are somehow made whole, and all of those previous sea-side mansions in Malibu, have been turned into beautiful, green, lush parks and public beaches (i.e. since the Coastal Commission either by edict or regulation will never allow rebuilding there).
But again, I just can’t figure out what changed between the 1960’s and 2025, to create the kind of inferno’s that have regularly visited California over the past 20 years. It’s just a complete mystery, really. Something changed, that’s for certain.
(Aside: There was a fire rapidly climbing up the hill behind my house in Oceanside, a year or two before we left. That was a shock, but when the Camp Pendleton fire resources joined in the fight, they stopped that fire cold in it’s tracks. A lot of Fallbrook homes died, though. Tragic. Anyhow, now I live in N. Idaho, in a lake view home within a forest, so we’re not at zero fire risk here. However, there’s water everywhere – our hydrants work, the county & electric cooperative maintain the vegetation, and we have a good volunteer fire department, so I’m not all that worried.)
I feel for those impacted in Southern California. I still have friends and family there. God bless ’em.