“The only tool available to control the damage a fire can do is to manage the fuel.”
With so much forest we should let it burn, there is no way to mitigate that much woodland. People can clear their properties but that does little when a fire 1/4 mile or 1/2 away is throwing embers onto windows and roofs. It is the windows and roofs where the fire gets in, especially windows.
Sure there is, but not the way government does it. In just one instance, there is enough fuel in "our" national forests to provide electrical power for over 100 million Americans. Portable gasifiers are being developed right now for that purpose.
People can clear their properties but that does little when a fire 1/4 mile or 1/2 away is throwing embers onto windows and roofs.
Around here it can be two miles. It's doable, and believe me, the land around here is plenty rugged. As to roofs, tile works fine. So does steel. Screen the gutters or keep them clean. As to windows, besides tempered and annealed glass, ever heard of storm shutters? I have 1-1/2" standpipes all over on gravity feed. Sheesh.
Give me an hour with a chainsaw, a drip torch, and a hose and my house will be fine (the slopes below it are 150% too). You see, I manage the fuel. You can tell the difference between my property and everything around it from GoogleEarth at five miles in altitude. There is space between the trees here, with lush native groundcovers. The brush gets topped and thinned periodically. It's doable.
How about changing the fuel to jihadists - enhanced with a little gasoline ?