They build their homes where there is land to build. The law requires them to clear-brush the areas around their homes.
The only real failure here is the government that did not clean up government land. Hence the massive amount of fuel to burn over the cleared areas.
Arnold and his government has again failed and just like four years ago with the cedar fire, after a lot of yelling, government will again take the blame.
Uhh, I recall a few years back Bush sent a bill to
Congress limiting the budget to 4% increases, but
specifically honing in on burning the underbrush
in the National Parks. The Democrats refuted the
whole package, demanding they get full okay on
all their cutesy little pork packages. Once
they won that argument, the Republicans jumped
in with all their pork amendments. Of course,
back in those days, Bush had no guts re vetoing,
so he took the blame. I have no idea what
Schwarzenneger did with the funds; I do know
he was between a rock and a hard place to find
monies for all the education/freebies for the
continuing mass invasion from South of the
border.